Yar Thet Pan, Kyaw Zin Moe and Aung San Oo with their awards at Hotel Nikko on June 16. Pic: Aye Zaw Myo

HOTEL Nikko provided the ideal location for the Myanmar Sports Writers Association’s Best Sportsman, Woman and Coach awards ceremony for 2006.

The Best Sportsman award went to 48-year-old Aung San Oo, who claimed victory at the fifth Asian Billiards Championship in Iran back in May 2006.

Best Sportswoman went to Yar Thet Pan after she picked up a silver medal in weightlifting at last December’s Asian Games in Doha in the 69 kilogram class.

Winner of the Best Coach award went to Kyaw Zin Moe, head coach of Myanmar’s national Sepatakraw team, for the team’s performance at the last Asian Games.

“I’m very happy to have won this award after becoming the first Myanmar person to win the Asian Billiards title. I made our country proud,” Aung San Oo said

Aung San Oo defeated Indian national champion, Devendra Joshi, 5-0 in the final of the tournament in May, 2006. He hopes more success will follow in the near future.

“I’m currently trying my best to win another victory for Myanmar at the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Thailand this December,” he added.

Best Sportswoman winner Yar Thet Pan said the title will spur her on in Thailand.

“This prize gives me a lot of encouragement for upcoming international weightlifting events, especially the SEA Games in Thailand.

In the previous two SEA Games Yar Thet Pan has won silver medals and is hungry this year to do one better and take gold.

Kyaw Zin Moe, winner of the Best Coach award, said he was extremely pleased to be honoured for his work but is looking ahead to a big challenge at the SEA Games.

In the 2005 SEA Games Myanmar won gold medals in the men’s doubles, three-person regu format, and the women’s doubles.

“This time I think it will be more difficult for us to win gold medals because we’ll play in Thailand, where Sepatakraw started. It’s also an exciting challenge,” Kyaw Zin Moe said.

“We started playing 25 years later than Thailand but we’re now the champions in Southeast Asia.”

He was also instrumental in Myanmar winning two silvers and three bronzes at the fifteenth Asian Games last December.

Dr Tin Tun Oo, President of the Myanmar Sports Writers Association, said the annual awards were given out to honour past performances and inspire sportspeople in the future.

“We give these prizes to honour the sportsperson who make the country proud and we hope to support their continuing success,” he said.

The event has been organised by the association since 2003.