16
- July 2017
Jason Belmonte Wins
Best Bowler ESPY for
Third Consecutive Year
By Jerry Schneider
Australia’s Jason Belmonte received his
third consecutive Best Bowler ESPY Award
Wednesday evening during the 2017 ESPY
Awards ceremony at the Microsoft Theater
in Los Angeles.
Belmonte, who now owns four ESPY
awards, became the second player to earn
three consecutive ESPYs joining PBA Hall
of Famer Norm Duke who won three con-
secutively in 2007, ’08 and ’09.
Belmonte, a three-time PBA Player of the
Year, was among winners in a variety of
sports and special moment categories that
were determined by fan voting on espn.com
with the winners announced during ABC-
TV’s live ESPY Awards telecast.
In 2017, Belmonte won the USBC Masters
for a record fourth time and brought his PBA
major win total to eight by winning the Bar-
basol PBA Players Championship.
Since last summer Belmonte also has compiled eight other top-10 finishes includ-
ing seventh in the 2017 FireLake PBA Tournament of Champions and fourth in the
2016 PBA World Championship. Most recently, he finished second in the inaugural
Main Event PBA Tour Finals and third in the Grand Casino Hotel & Resort PBA
Oklahoma Open.
"I'm absolutely stoked about winning this year’s ESPY award,” said Belmonte, who
won his first ESPY in 2011. “I can't thank the fans enough for voting for me. The
support and passion I receive from people all around the world is a huge motiva-
tion to keep pushing myself to raise the bar.
“To show my fans the appreciation I have for them, I will continue to work hard on
and off the lanes and be as interactive as possible with them through social media
and appearances. In addition to the fans I’d also
like to thank ESPN for establishing an award
that honors outstanding achievement in our
sport.”
Also nominated in the Best Bowler category
were 2016 PBA Player of the Year EJ Tackett
of Huntington, Ind. and 2016 PBA Rookie of the
Year Francois Lavoie of Canada.
Among Tackett’s wins in 2017 were the Tourna-
ment of Champions, DHC Japan Invitational
and the recent Main Event PBA Tour Finals. In
the last half of 2016, he won the PBA World
Championship, Bear Open and was a member
of the winning Merica Rooster Illusion PBA
Team Challenge team.
Lavoie became only the second foreign-born
winner of the U.S. Open when he beat Marshall
Kent 228-194 in the title match last November.
During the stepladder finals he also bowled the
26th televised 300 game when he beat Shawn
Maldonado 300-211 in the semi-final match. In
June, Lavoie won the Xtra Frame Jonesboro
Open for his third career PBA Tour title.
Belmonte is tied with Duke and PBA Hall of
Famer Pete Weber for second with four Best
Bowler ESPY awards trailing PBA Hall of Famer
Walter Ray Williams Jr. who tops the list with
seven.
