Del Rosario gets Man of the Year, Hall of Fame nod

Chef de mission and Makati City Rep. Monsour Del Rosario.

Makati City Rep. Monsour del Rosario is the 2017 Man of the Year in world taekwondo and will be inducted into the combat sport’s Hall of Fame.

Del Rosario, who had a colorful and storied career both in taekwondo and show business, will receive the accolade from South Korean president Moon Jae-in and World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) president Dr. Chongwon Choue.

He is the first Filipino to earn the distinction since the WTF started giving the award in 2010.

“I’m overwhelmed to make history again for our country,” said Del Rosario, the current secretary general of the Philippine Taekwondo Association and 2019 Southeast Asian Games Philippine chief of mission.

Apart from grabbing the spotlight in the Dec. 7 awarding ceremony at the world taekwondo headquarters in Seoul, the 52-year-old Del Rosario is set to join the Hall of Fame as one of the best taekwondo fighters in the world during the 1980s.

Del Rosario was an outstanding fighter for the national team from 1982 to 1989 and an eight-time national lightweight champion before he dabbled into acting to promote the sport with success.

A two-time gold medalist in the Southeast Asian Games (1987 and 1989), Del Rosario also bagged a bronze medal in the 1986 Seoul Asian Games and reached the quarterfinal round of the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

As a sports official, he made history by leading the country to its best finish in the recent Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games (Aimag) in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, with two gold, 14 silver and 14 bronze medals as the delegation’s chef de mission.