Rafael Nepomuceno
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Rafael "Paeng" Nepomuceno (born January 30, 1957 in Manila) is a Filipino bowler who has won the World Cup in bowling four times in three decades:
- In Tehran, Iran on November 19, 1976
- In Jakarta, Indonesia on November 1, 1980
- In Le Mans, France on November 8, 1992
- In Belfast, Northern Ireland on November 23, 1996
Nepomuceno also won 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 Busan, South Korea. In total, Paeng has won over 100 tournament titles.
He is the only bowler who had received the prestigious International Olympic Committee 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 Emirates, 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 Filipino sport."
