The poll, whose results were announced Saturday, involved 14,694 respondents — the largest sample of its kind.

“I thank you for all the attention and support the public has given me. Hopefully I can continue to accomplish good things for Indonesia,” Chris said after the award ceremony.

Chris is the World Boxing Association (WBA) featherweight super champion.

The WBA allows for a regular and a super champion in each weight division. The latter usually holds a belt in the same division from another federation, such as the WBO or International Boxing Federation (IBF), but in Chris’ case, it was conferred for his 10 successful title defenses.

Chris is currently preparing his next fight in Bali sometime in April and has been training in Perth, Australia. He won the WBA featherweight belt from Japan’s Hiroyuki Enokidi in 2003.

For the best female athlete award, Irene beat badminton players Maria Kristin and Liliana Natsir, as well as long-distance runner Trianingsih, who last month won a marathon event in Hong Kong — her first international feat this year.

Irene is the country’s first and only Woman Grandmaster titlist, who earned her 2008 title at the prodigious age of 16. She turns 18 in April.

She began known to the world of chess in the 2004 Chess Olympiad in Calvia, Spain, where she received her FIDE Master. In the 2006 event in Turin, Italy, she rose as International Master titleholder, and accomplished her best feat so far in 2008 when she earned her current title at the Chess Olympiad in Dresden, Germany.

Bola also gave out Lifetime Achievement Awards to Indonesia’s late sport legends, namely Donald Pandiangan (archery, 1945-2008), Iswadi Idris (soccer, 1948-2008), and Poedjianto (badminton, 1932-2008).

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