Sports greats Olivia ‘Bong’ Coo, Paquito Rivas to receive Lifetime Award

MANILA, Philippines — Two retired sports greats will be the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement honor during the SMC-PSA (Philippine Sportswriters Association) Annual Awards Night at the Manila Hotel on Feb. 26.

Former bowling World Cup titlist  Olivia ‘Bong’ Coo and cycling legend Paquito Rivas are the latest personalities to be given such recognition by the country’s oldest sportswriting fraternity in the event presented by Milo, the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) and Cignal TV.

Notable figures who previously received the award include cage star Carlos Loyzaga, Virgilio “Baby” Dalupan, Filomeno “Boy” Codiñera, Carlos Padilla, Mauricio Martelino, Francisco Elizalde, the 1973 Phl men’s basketball team, with Grandmaster Eugene Torre, the last to be accorded the honor in 2017.

Coo, 70, snared the Qubica AMF Bowling World Cup in Bangkok in 1979, a year after the late Lita dela Rosa won it. 

In the summer of the same year, Rivas, 73, won the 1979 Tour behind his notable climbing prowess,for which his peers honored him as the undisputed ‘Eagle of the Mountain.’

Rivas now stands as race manager of the UCI-sanctioned Le Tour de Filipinas.

Coo is likewise still very much active in bowling as the current secretary general of the Philippine Bowling Federation.

A four-time world champion and five-time Asian Games gold medal winner  (Singles, All-Events, and Masters) in the 1978 edition in Bangkok, Coo became the first Filipino athlete listed by the Guinness Book of World Records and one of the inaugural members in the International Bowling Hall of Fame along with bowling great  Paeng Nepomuceno.

Coo was also PSA Athlete of the Year four times – in 1982, 1983, 1984, and 1986.