Bong Coo


Bong Coo is the most decorated Filipino athlete in any sport per Philippine Republic Act 9064 also known as "Athletes Incentives Act of 2001". Her career with the national team has earned for Philippines 78 medals broken down to 37 gold, 23 silver and 18 bronze, and won a total of 137 championship titles with at least one Masters title for 28 consecutive years.
Bong Coo is a four time Ten-pin bowling World Champion and the first Filipino athlete listed in the Guinness Book of World Records. and one of the inaugural member to the International Bowling Hall of FameSt. Louis Missouri in 1993 with compatriot Paeng Nepomuceno and Sweden's Annete Hagre .
She was named one of the "Greatest International Bowlers of All-Time" by the prestigious Bowlers Journal International in its November 2013 100-year anniversary issue and "Top 24 International Bowlers of All-Time" by the Bowlers Journal International edition in September 2004
She was inducted to the Philippine Sports Hall of Fame with compatriots Paeng Nepomuceno and Lita Dela Rosa on November 22, 2018
She was honored with Philippine Sports Association a Lifetime Achievement award on February 26, 2019
She was a PSA four time Athlete of the Year awardee and a member of its Hall of Fame and Athletes of the Millennium.

Quadrennial Asian Games

To all the National Olympic Committees and Government of Asian countries, the quadrennial Asian Games is the most prestigious and important Games next to the Olympic Games, Bong Coo is the most successful bowling athlete at the Asian Games 63-year history, winning five gold medals.. She won the most Gold medals for the Philippines.
Her success in Asiad happened in 1979 and in 1986. In addition to her five gold medals, she won two silver and one bronze medal in two consecutive participation spanning 8 years, the record is unbroken by any Asian bowling athlete to this date. Bong Coo achieved what experts believe to be a historic record by winning all the individual events at the 1978 Asian Games in Bangkok Thailand, she won the Singles, topped the All-Events, and won the Masters..

All Events Champion

All Events is the combined scores in 4 events: Singles, Doubles, Trios and 5-Team Event. Events are held over consecutive days and played in varying lane conditions and pace totaling 24 games, and the winners are determined by the combined performance in all. This category is regarded as the most prestigious medal in world bowling '.
Bong Coo is the only bowling athlete who has won the All Events titles in bowling's quadrennial and biennial competitions such as the regional games, Zone championships and World Championships. She owned the All Events records on those tournaments at one time in 1986, consequently, she was named World Bowling Writers Female "World Bowler of the Year" that year.
Major All Events Titles and records
Bong Coo also won the Bowling World Cup, quadrennial Asian Games Singles and Masters, the biennial Asian Championships Masters, the biennial FIQ Zone Championships Singles and the biennial South East Asian Games Masters.

Other World Championships Medals

Bong Coo and Lita dela Rosa won the Doubles Gold and Trios Silver medal with Nellie Castillo at 1979 World Championships in Manila. Bong and Lita repeated the Silver medal with Arianne Cerdeña in the 1983 World Championships in Caracas, Venezuela.

Asian Championships

International bowling is divided into three geographical Zones. America, European and Asia which includes Australia and the Western Pacific.
Bong Coo won the most gold medals in the biennial Fédération Internationale des Quilleurs Zone Championships now known as the Asian Bowling Championships, with 14 gold medals in 12 consecutive tournament participation. Her Zone Masters titles were acknowledged by the World Bowling Writers Hall of Fame Committee equivalent to world medals. To this day she still holds the most gold medals won in the FIQ Zone Championships in one celebration with 5 gold medals in 6 events.

Southeast Asian Games

The Southeast Asian Games, is a biennial multi-sport event involving participants from the current 11 countries of Southeast Asia. It is supervised by the International Olympic Committee and the Olympic Council of Asia..
The Philippines hosted the Southeast Asian Games for the first time in 1981. Bong Coo emerged as its most successful Filipino campaigner. She won six medals in six events, four of which were gold medals where she set six individual game records. Bong won the gold in Ladies Doubles with Lita de la Rosa and averaged 221 in Trios en route to an Individual All Events gold medal and became the South East Asian Games Masters champion.

Other Awards

In 2000, Bong Coo was voted one of the Philippines Athlete of the Millennium and was awarded an Achievement Diploma by the International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch in recognition of her outstanding contribution in promoting the development and participation of women and girls in sports, she was 17-years earlier awarded the Philippine Olympic Medal of Honor. She was also named one of the Ten Outstanding Women for the Nations Service in 1986. The TOWNS award is conferred every three years by the TOWNS Foundation on Filipino women who have rendered outstanding service to the nation.

Retirement

Retired from active competition, she teaches Sport Bowling since 2002 under the Department of Human Kinetics at the University of the Philippines Diliman and Colegio de San Juan de Letran where bowling is included in the Physical Education curriculum. Her syllabus was approved by the Philippine Department of Education in 2001.
She briefly participated in seniors competitions where she won two Seniors Master Titles in 2008 at age 60 and in 2012 at 64.
A major bowing ball manufacturer released the MVP-Bong Coo ball in 2001 and in 2003, they are approved by the USBC for use in international competitions. In 2003, the Overseas Filipino Workers bowlers honored her through the Filipino bowlers of UAE in the "Bong Coo MVP Cup"
participated in by OFW's from Brunei, Malaysia, Guam, California, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong and Singapore. She provides free bowling training to youth bowlers from OFW families.

Summary of Awards and achievements