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Monday, July 11, 2005
Teener beats Manalo
By Mike T. Limpag
Sun.Star Correspondent
BETTER luck next year. Marlon Manalo’s dream of winning the 2005 Kaohsiung World Pool Championship was crushed by 17-year-old phenom Chia Ching Wu in the Kaohsiung Business Center in late Saturday night.
After three impressive wins, including one against former champion Mika Immonen that had him on a 25-rack winning streak, Manalo lost his touch in a 5-11 semifinal loss.
They split the first four matches before Wu broke away with six straight racks for an 8-2 lead to the delight of the vocal home fans.
“I am very surprised,” Wu told Matchroomsport. “I asked myself ‘Is this really happening? Is it true?’ My luck is getting better and better and to win tomorrow I just need to treat it like a normal game; stay calm and keep myself together.”
Taiwanese fans will be split on who to cheer today after Po-Cheng Kuo defeated Rodney Morris in the other semis, 11-8. The finals was still being played at presstime.
Taiwan’s might
This year’s WPC also signified the rise of Taiwan as a major pool playing nation and perhaps the end of one of the greatest pool players of his generation, Efren “Bata” Reyes.
After the group stages, Taiwan had 16 players in the final 64, while the Philippines only had eight.
Four of the eight eventually lost to Taiwanese in the knockout stages, while Manalo sent home two Taiwanese in shocking fashion before getting the boot himself.
In the last 64, Francisco “Django” Bustamante lost to Jung Ling Chan, 10-8, while Dennis Orcullo lost to Huah Fong Wang, 10-5, and Ronato Alcano to Thorsten Hohmann, 10-7.
In the final 32, Gandy Valle lost to Ying Chieh Chen, 10-9, while Warren Kiamco yielded to Chan, 10-4, and Alex Pagulayan lost to Vilmos Foldes, 10-8.
It was also on that stretch that Manalo logged his record 10-0 win over Chien Che Huang and an 11-0 win over Ying Chieh Chen.
Despite Manalo’s record-setting streak and eventual semifinal berth, it was Reyes’ early exit that hit Pinoys hard.
Reyes, the 1999 champion, finished sixth in Group 4, after losing to unkowns Jakob Lyng, Tomasz Kaplan, Chin Ching Kang and Roman Hybler. Ironically, Reyes’ three wins were against those who made it to the knock out stages: Tony Drago, Mike Davis and Adam Abdulrahim.
Not right
Ted Lerner, in a poignant article, quoted announcer John Macdonald: “It appears he hasn’t felt right since he arrived in Kaoshiung.
“Normally at World Pool Championships, Efren plays pool with the kids and he gets out the chess set. But here nothing. He just doesn’t seem to have the presence of character that he normally has at a tournament. And believe me, Efren has presence.
He has power over people. If he wants to win, he can win. Efren can do anything he wants.”
Still Lerner and the fans hasn’t given up on Efren yet and told Sun.Star Cebu: “Efren will always be the man.”
(July 11, 2005 issue)
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