Virada Nirapathpongporn Selected 2002 Golf Honda Award Winner

June 1, 2002

DURHAM, N.C. - Duke University sophomore Virada Nirapathpongporn has been selected the winner of the 2002 Golf Honda Award. The Honda Award recognizes the top woman collegiate athlete in each of 15 Division I sports with all 15 becoming candidates for the Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year to receive the Honda-Broderick Cup.

Nirapathpongporn, a product of Bangkok, Thailand, is coming off of a record-setting performance at the 2002 NCAA Championship as she led the Blue Devils to a second NCAA Championship and won the individual title also. She picked up first team All-America accolades for the second consecutive year, after guiding Duke to eight tournament victories on the season. The 2002 ACC Player of the Year registered the third-best season stroke average in school history with a 73.06 mark and posted a NCAA Championship record tying four-day total of 279 to claim individual medallist honors at the championship.

Quickly rewriting the Duke record books, Nirapathpongporn now owns the top 18 (65), 36 (137), 54 (207) and 72-hole (279) scores in Blue Devil history. She has notched 13 top 10 finishes in two seasons along with five victories.

Nirapathpongporn becomes Duke's third women's athlete to receive the Honda Award as Vanessa Webb received the tennis award in 1999 and Candy Hannemann won the golf award in 2001.

With the honor, Duke University will receive a $5,000 scholarship donation for the women's athletics program. The Honda Awards banquet will be held on June 17, 2002 at The Wyndham Anatole Hotel in Dallas, Texas.

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