"Greatest Filipino Athlete of All Time"

Bowling, billiards, boxing and basketball are the four big Bs of Philippine sports. These four sports events have rewarded the country richly and produced world champions like Paeng, Coo, Bata, Django, Amang, Flash, Pancho, Onyok, and Caloy.

In a 1999 survey, local poll firm Social Weather Stations claimed that the most popular sports in the Philippines were basketball (72 percent), boxing (55 percent), billiards (37 percent) and bowling (15 percent).

Bowlers

Bowling, one of the four big Bs of Philippine sports is no doubt a field where Filipinos have excelled in. Two Filipinos have been included in the 1993 inaugural International Bowling Hall of Fame, namely: Paeng Nepomuceno and Bong Coo. Bowling has also produced an Olympic gold medal and six Asiad gold medals for the Philippines. Too bad, bowling was just a demonstration sports when Arianne Cerdena won a gold in the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Nevertheless, Filipinos have already etched their names on top of more than 100 million bowlers worldwide.

Rafael "Paeng" Nepomuceno
Paeng owns the following distinctions: "Greatest Filipino Athlete of All Time", "Athlete of the Century", and "International Bowling Athlete of the Millennium." He has won the World Cup in bowling four times in three decades. He could even win his fifth in fourth decade.

He won his first World Cup in Tehran, Iran on November 19, 1976 when he was only 19 years old; his second World Cup in Jakarta, Indonesia on November 1, 1980; his third World Cup in Le Mans, France on November 8, 1992; and his fourth World Cup in Belfast, Northern Ireland on November 23, 1996.

Paeng also won two equally prestigious international titles, namely: the International Tournament championship in Las Vegas, Nevada on August 8, 1984 and the World Tenpin Masters championship in London, England on March 7, 1999. On October 4, 2002, Paeng won a gold medal together with RJ Bautista in bowling's double event for men at the Asian Games held in Pusan, South Korea. All in all, Paeng has won over 100 tournament titles.

He is the only bowler who had received the prestigious International Olympic Committee (IOC) President's Trophy and was the first enshrined in the International Bowling Hall of Fame in St. Louis, Missouri in 1993. In November 1999, the Federation Internationale des Quilleurs (FIQ) named Paeng as the "International Bowling Athlete of the Millennium."

In a ceremony held in Dubai, United Arab Ermirates, an FIQ official cited Paeng with these words: "No international bowling athlete is more deserving of recognition than Paeng. In addition to his long list of well-known achievements as a world champion in three decades, Paeng truly has been and continues to be an extraordinary ambassador for our sport. I congratulate Paeng for receiving the highest award possible from the IOC. Being the first time an IOC recognition has been given to a bowling athlete, I can only say: On behalf of 100 million bowlers in the world, I salute Paeng Nepomuceno as the international bowling athlete of the millennium."

Paeng, who is still an active player, was born in Manila on January 30, 1957. Truly, Paeng is a world champion and we are proud to say that Paeng is a Filipino!