Monday, July 19, 2004 Pagulayan takes World Pool Championship By MIKE T. LIMPAG Sun.Star Correspondent
NOW, Alex Pagulayan has a reason to party all night.
The Canada-based Filipino can forget his heartbreaking loss last year, after staging a thrilling comeback to beat Pei Wei Chang ,17-13, in the 2004 World Pool Championships final late last night.
Pagulayan, whose performance in last year’s final was hampered by his drinking binge the night before, stayed sober this time, and took the first rack after a miss by Chang on the 3-ball.
“I only had coffee this time, last time, I was so drunk,” Pagulayan said in a pre-match interview.
However, Pagulayan returned the favor with a bungled safety to give the Taiwanese, who had wins over Marcus Chamat and Johnny Archer to earn his spot, a chance to level.
Chang pulled away to 4-1 but a dry break on the sixth rack put Pagulayan back on the table for a 4-2 score. But Pagulayan missed his shot on the 5-ball, to the delight of the partisan crowd.
Advantage
The 25-year-old Taiwanese took advantage of the error as he cleaned up the rack and kept Pagulayan on his seat as he moved to 8-2.
Pagulayan, cheered by a few placard-bearing Filipino OFWs, started his comeback in the 18th rack after a scratch off Chang’s break and the score at 11-6, where he picked up five straight racks to level the match.
During that run, Pagulayan, who’s last previous break was a scratch, employed the soft break to effective use as he kept Chang on his seat.
A miss on the blue two in rack 23, got Chang off his seat and he obliged as he cleaned the rack en route to a 13-11 advantage but a bad lay on rack 25 gave the table back to Pagulayan.
Momentum
Pagulayan got the momentum back as he took the next two racks to level the score again.
After an exchange of safeties, Pagulayan dropped a difficult one to the upper left and sank all the balls to take a 14-13 lead, his first taste of the lead since, 1-0.
Another good break and good lay in rack 24 saw Pagulayan two racks up after making two difficult thin cuts on the two and the four.
Things began to look brighter for Pagulayan in the next rack as he showed his growing confidence as he let the cue ball roll around the seven for his shot on the eight ball as he went 16-13.
Pagulayan clinched the title in rack 28th with a marvelous shot off the three to the seven-six cluster. “The Lion” made the three and managed to clear the cluster and his path to the championships was cleared.
After sinking the 9-ball that made him $75,000 richer, Pagulayan jumped on top of the railing that separated the audience from the table and stood there with his arms raised.
He shook hands with match referee Michaela Tabb and did a back roll on the floor, eliciting laughs and cheers from the crowd.
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