Wednesday, November 02, 2005
RP pool players gun for another sweep
In 8-ball, luck is not much of a factor. Alex Pagulayan, Marlon Manalo, Francisco Bustamante and the legendary Efren “Bata” Reyes proved this when they made last year’s World 8-Ball Championship an All-Filipino show.
The four won all semifinal spots, with the 51-year-old Magician defeating his close friend Bustamante, 10-4, in the semifinals before taking the title over the up-and-coming Manalo, 11-8.
Can they pull the same effort again, or will the rest of the world deny them another brilliant finish?
Filipino pool fans will find the answer in the 2005 World 8-Ball championship on Nov. 8-14 in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates. According to the event’s website, organizers have set aside $114,000 in total prizes.
Title pretenders
The four pool icons will compete with 25 other world-class cue artists, which include reigning World 9-Ball champion Wu Chia Ching, and former holders of the title, Mika Immonen, Thorsten Hohmann and Ralf Souqet.
Despite nagging injuries to his elbow, Bustamante took this year’s RP Open title and also the World Summit of Pool title.
Bustamante, along with Reyes and Manalo, has opted not to see action in the 23rd Southeast Asian Games on Nov. 27 to Dec. 5, as they preferred to play in the US circuit.
Pagulayan, though, will suit up for the RP team.
Meanwhile, Manalo will have his chance to exact revenge on the 16-year-old Wu, who defeated him in the semifinals of the Taipei World Pool Championships. Before his loss, Manalo was on an impressive roll, racking up 25 straight racks, including two straight shutouts.
Other players in the tournament are Ronnie O’Sullivan, the current world snooker No.1, Fabio Petroni, European champion Alex Lely, Young Hwa Jeong, Satoshi Kawabata, Phil Reilly, Phil Wilkinson, Matjaz Erculj, Daryl Peach, Michael Schmidt, Andreas Roschkowsky, Jorn Kaplan, Kevin Becker, Nick Van Den Berg, Sandor Tot, Vilmos Foldes and Radoslaw Babica.
Also in the event are Tomasz Kaplan, Niels Feijen, Marcus Chamat, Marco Tschudi, Hisashi Kusano, Shin Yung Park, Cheng Chuan Liu, Jung Lin Chang, Irfan Ahmed Khan, Muhammad Imran Basheer, Patrick Ooi, Fook Yuen, Ibrahim Bin Amir, Max Eberly, Frank Alvarez, Luc Salvas, Ronnie Wiseman, Gustavo Espinoza, Warren Horsley, Jason Theron, Christian Reimering and Mike Massey.
(November 2, 2005 issue)
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