Taekwondo jin Marlon Avenido of University of Santo Tomas won UAAP Athlete of the Year award hands down during the league's Awards Night Thursday at the Far Eastern University auditorium in Morayta.

Avenido captured the coveted plum on the strength of his winning taekwondo’s MVP award – not to mention his impressive performance in international competitions. He also helped UST win its second straight title in the men's division.

The 21-year-old Avenido won a pair of silvers in the 25th Southeast Asian Games in Vientiane, Laos and the 1st Asian Martial Arts Games in Bangkok, Thailand to emerge as the finest athlete of the league’s 72nd season.

He won the highest individual honor against the league’s established stars, including basketball MVP Dylan Ababou, also of UST and La Salle swimmer and part-time actor Enchong Dee.

Also in the short list for the award were trackster Serenata Saluan and FEU chesser Shaider Nebato.

It was a double sweep for UST as swimmer Gian Daniel Berino took the Athlete of the Year plum in the juniors division. The school also claimed the overall title for the 12th straight season and 37th overall in the seniors division.

In the 78-kg and under category of the Asian Martial Arts Games, Avenido defeated Vietnam's Vo Hoang Giao, 3-1, to advance to the semis where he beat Indonesia's Basuki Nugroho, 7-2.

But he bowed to Korea's Lee Gyu-Jin, 4-2, in the finals.

He tried to win the gold this time in the welterweight 80 kg-and under category of the 25th SEAG in Laos but settled for yet another silver medal.

Aside from those tourneys, Avenido also competed in the World Taekwondo Championships held last October in Copenhagen, Denmark, the Southeast Asian Taekwondo Championships in Vietnam last June and the KTA Open Taekwondo Championships.