By Jean Malanum
MANILA – Tennis star Alexandra Eala and billiards whiz Chezka Centeno were feted as the top achievers of the Philippine Sportswriters Association for the month of July.
The 21-year-old Eala dethroned defending champion Iga Swiatek, 7-6 (9), 6-2, at Wimbledon to become the first Filipino in the Open era to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam in London.
At the WTA 1000 DC Open in Washington, she stunned Paris Olympics gold medalist Quinweng Zheng of China and defending champion Leylah Fernandez of Canada to reach the quarterfinals.
Centeno, on the other hand, reaffirmed the country’s status as a hotbed of global pool after ruling the WPA Women’s 8-Ball World Championship in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
She bagged the world 10-ball title in 2003 and 2025, and shared the mixed team gold in the WPA Teams 10-Ball World Championship with fellow world champions Rubilen Amit and Carlo Biado and fast-rising Jeffrey Roda last February.
Other achievers included pole vaulter EJ Obiena, young weightlifter Alexsandra Diaz, the Manila and Sagay Pony baseball teams, jiu-jitsu queen Annie Ramirez, and the Philippine Volcanoes.
Olympian Obiena topped two competitions in July – Raiffeisen Austrian Open at 5.75m and Internationales Stabhochsprung-Meeting auf dem Domplatz in Germany at 5.76m – while posting a season-best record of 5.85m in his runner-up finish at Meeting Madrid in Spain.
Diaz won three gold medals while breaking two world records at the IWF World Youth Weightlifting Championships in Cali, Colombia. She dominated the women’s 48kg division with golden lifts in clean and jerk (new mark of 98kgs), snatch (77kgs) and total (new standard of 175kgs).
Jay-R Colonia took home the clean and jerk gold with 140kgs to go with silvers in snatch (109kgs) and total (249kgs).
Young batters scored a golden double with Manila reigning supreme in the premier 18-under division of the Pony International Softball World Series in McAllen, Texas, at the expense of the United States’ Pride Elite, 8-1, and Sagay winning the 14-under after turning back Mexico’s RXII Kino, 4-2.
Two-time world champion Ramirez topped the adults 57kg division at the 10th Jiu-Jitsu Asian Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan, her third time to win in the continental tournament.
The Volcanoes dominated the Asia Rugby Unions Cup in Nonthaburi, Thailand, capping their unbeaten run with a 39-18 win over Malaysia in the finals. (PNA)
