Elsa Pons is a tennis pioneer in Menorca and Miquel Jaume stood out as a sports manager in indoor football.
The president of the Government, Margalida Prohens, together with the councillor of Tourism, Culture and Sports, Jaime Bauzá, the regional secretary of Culture and Sports, Pedro Vidal, and the director general of Sports, Joan Antoni Ramonell, presented the 2023 Cornelius Atticus awards to the Menorcan Elsa Pons and the Mallorcan Miquel Jaume Roig, in this case posthumously.
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The Cornelius Atticus 2023 distinctions
The Menorcan Elsa Pons (31/12/1951) has a long sporting career linked to tennis, where she has been a pioneering woman as a player and coach, and since 2015 as the owner of a sports services company. She was also the first woman president of a tennis club in Spain. For his part, the Mallorcan Miquel Jaume (1953-2021) has received, posthumously, the highest sports award of the Balearic Islands in recognition of his extensive experience as a coach and sports manager, highlighting his time at Mallorca Palma Futsal. The award was collected by his daughter, Maria Jaume.
The Cornelius Atticus prize, established in 1996 and which since 2017 has had a women’s category, is named after the first known sportsman in the Balearic Islands, a third-century pancratium athlete (a melee discipline) whose tombstone, with a laudatory poem inscribed on it, was found during excavations in the Roman city of Pollentia (Alcudia, Mallorca) in 1933.
Eleven candidatures were submitted for the 2023 edition (seven in the men’s category and four in the women’s category). To be eligible for the award, candidates must have been athletes, managers, coaches or have had another function directly involved in the promotion of sport. In addition, they must have dedicated more than 25 years to the development of sport in the Balearic Islands or from Balearic sport, and they must have contributed to the evolution of sport in the autonomous community.
During the awards ceremony, which took place at the Es Baluard Museum, President Margalida Prohens stressed that “without a doubt, the Balearic Islands are a land closely linked to the world of sport, a land of champions, of talented sportsmen and women who are recognised all over the world, and a land in which sport has given us a great deal of joy”.
The president also stressed that Elsa Pons is a “pioneering woman in the world of sport, who has led the way and broken glass ceilings”. Prohens recalled that Miquel Jaume Roig was “a man who one day had a dream” and who managed to “place the Balearic Islands as the world capital of futsal”.
Cornelius Atticus 2023 profile
Elsa Pons Fortuny (Alaior, 31/12/1951) began her career as a tennis player in 1972. Since then, she has been a player, team captain, club leader, assembly member and delegate in Menorca of the Tennis Federation. She has been the absolute winner of all the open tournaments organised in Menorca since 1978. In 1993 she became the first woman president of a tennis club in Spain, specifically the CT Alayor, of which she had been the owner since a year before.
Miquel Jaume Roig (1953-2021) is one of the most renowned people in Balearic sport. Until his death, he was the president and founder of the first division futsal club Mallorca Palma Futsal. Prior to that, he had a career on the bench in Mallorcan football, with Manacor and the youth team of Real Mallorca. In 1988 he founded the Asociación Deportiva Manacor. Miquel thus turned a humble local team into a benchmark throughout the islands, giving prominence and identity to a minority sport such as futsal, along with admirable social work. Ten years after its foundation, Miquel Jaume’s project reached the highest possible category.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)