Folayang joins NCCB KISLA awardees on Feb. 10 recognition rites

FORMER ONE World Lightweight Champion Eduard Folayang will join the elite best of the city's and Cordilleran athletes who will be honored by the NCCB Kafagway International Sports Luminary Awards (KISLA) committee, scheduled at the Silungan Center at the City Social Welfare and Development Office (CSWDO) at 9'clock in the morning on February 10.

Folayang will receive the NCCB KISLA Sportmanship Award, because he displayed the highest level of sportsmanship when he lost his championship belt to a worthy opponent from Australia late last year. Before he joined MMA in Team Lakay, Folayang was a wushu gold medalist in the Southeast Asian Games and the World Wushu Championships as a member of the Philippine Team.

Reigning World Bantamweight titlist in Brave Combat Federation (BCF) Stephen Loman and Team Lakay founder and coach Mark Sangiao lead the core of athletes and sports leaders and other honorees whose leadership and exemplary achievements in several international sporting events held overseas last year made us proud as a nation. Loman, a 2nd year Bachelor of Science in Criminology student at the University of the Cordilleras will receive the "Super Athlete of the Year" award while Sangiao will get the "Coach of the Year" plum. Recently, Sangiao, a veteran SEA Games martial arts warrior was ranked as the second best MMA Coach in Asia. Loman, on the other hand, made history when he knocked out his Indian opponent during their encounter at Khalifa Sports City in Bahrain last November.

Joining the awardees mentioned in last week's article will be the senior citizen athletic stars of the Philippine Team in javelin throw, discus throw, and shot put women's division world wushu star Divine Wally, archers Karen Meer Hongitan and Mary Queen Banez; wushu-sanda warriors Islay Erika Bumogao, Liane Benito, and Marian Tranyce, and PWD Para-Olympian weightlifter Adeline Domapog.

The University of the Cordilleras, with its president Ray Dean Salvosa and UC's athletic director Danilo Cong-o are also in the centerstage. UC was cited as the educational institution in the city with the biggest number of performing international athletes in the last decade. Track star Christian Bagsit, ultramarathoner Menchi