She began the year by capturing herby defeating 28-year-old veteran Spaniard Yvonne Cavalle-Reimers in the finals of the ITF $15,000 W15 Manacor tourney held in Spain.
Eala also made her first ever doubles finals in the professional circuit when she and Oksana Selekhmeteva of Russia finished runner-up in the W25 Platja D’Aro in Spain last May. Last March, Santiago became the first local player to win an international professional league championship when she propelled the Ageo Medics to the Japanese V. Cup title. She is now back in Japan with her club, which currently sits at 6th place in the V. League standings.
Santiago and Animam were just two of the Filipina athletes who were recruited to play as imports in professional leagues outside the country this year. Two of the Philippine Women’s National Football Team’s most potent offensive threats, Sarina Bolden and Quinley Quezada, were signed to see action in Japan’s newest top-flight professional division, the Women’s Empowerment League. Bolden joined the Chifure AS Elfen while Quezada was inked by JEF United Chiba.Yuka Saso spent 29 consecutive weeks in 2021 in the top 10 of the Ladies Professional Golf Association world rankings. Her highest world ranking for the year was 5th.
Early this year, Belen was tapped by Chot Reyes to be part of the TnT Tropang Giga coaching staff in the PBA.
Actually, the women of Philippines beat out the men in just about everything, beginning with OVP .