Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Manalo loses, wins millions
By Mike Limpag
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
The Pool god must be German.
Leading 7-6 against Thorsten Hohmann, Marlon Manalo needed one solid break for a chance to pocket pool's biggest prize— $350,000—in the final of the International Pool Tour North American 8-Ball championships.
Instead, Manalo, dubbed Marvelous Marlon, just as in three previous times in the race to 8 finals, came up dry, allowing the 2003 World Pool Champion to get the chance to level the match at 7-7 before running out the final rack for his thrilling win.
Despite finishing second, Manalo earned $99,000 (P5,088,600) for his efforts, which is almost $25,000 more than the payout to 2005 World Pool Champion Wu Chia Ching.
"I wasn't nervous at all, the entire match," Hohmann told international pooltour.com. "I felt really confident, I had a good night's sleep, slept eight hours, and woke up still full of confidence."
Sad loss
It was a sad loss for Manalo, who had Pinoy legend Jose Parica as his cornerman, as he was leading 2-0 early before problems with his break allowed Hohmman, who won 21 of his 28 games in the prior rounds, took the lead at 4-2.
Manalo got a chance in the seventh rack after Hohmman missed the last stripe and the Filipino cue artist got to 4-3 before running out the next rack to even the match.
Had his chance
Manalo, who led the tournament with three golden breaks, took three of the next four racks for a 7-6 lead before coming up with the game-turning dry break in his final chance at the table as Hohmann took the last two racks.
"I had my chance, on that last run-out-my mom could've run out that last rack. It was so easy, so I'm thankful, and maybe it was my destiny," Hohmann said.
The thrilling final concluded the nine-day tournament, which saw nine Pinoys advancing to the round of 18 and three advancing to the last group of six.
Efren Reyes, who previously owned the biggest pool purse at $250,000 in last year's King of the Hill tournament finished fourth and earned $65,000 (P3,341,000). while Dennis Orcullo finished third and went home $80,000 (P4,112,000) richer.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (August 1, 2006 issue)
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