Friday, July 27, 2007 Superbalita 9-ball Open division kicks off today at SM City
WITH the entry of top caliber players, it will be a display of billiards mastery when the 2007 Sun.Star Superbalita 9-Ball Challenge kicks off its Open Division today at the SM City-Cebu Trade Hall.
Registration will start for the richest billiards tournament in the south at 10 a.m, while the tournament will start at 1 p.m. Registration fee for the Open Division is P1,500 but registrants may avail of a 50 percent discount if they can present five mastheads of Sun.Star Cebu or Sun.Star Superbalita.
With the entry of 2004 World Pool Champion Alex “The Lion” Pagulayan, the tournament is expected to bring total satisfaction to those who will watch the competition.
Pagulayan, together with Antonio “Gaga” Gabica, Gandy Valle and Lee Van Corteza, is among the players who are automatically seeded to the Top 16. They will wait for the other qualifiers who will need to undergo the rigid elimination round to complete the final 16.
Aside from the known cue masters, other players to watch are fast rising billiard stars led by Jherome Peña, Roberto Gomez, Mike Takayama and Michael Feleciano who are all regular campaigners abroad.
Prizes
Top prize for the Open division is P160,000, while the runnerup will get P80,000. The third placer and fourth placers will bring home, P40,000 and P30,000, respectively.
Aside from the qualifying rounds of the Open division, the semifinal games of the Class B, high school and elementary Divisions are also going to take place today.
The semifinalists of the Class B division are Reymar Naraiso, Adonis Anthony, Antonio Cose and Maxwell Bernadez. High school division qualifiers are James Rama, Keith Manayon, Gerwin Bathan and Gerald Fontanar and elementary division will have Anthony Raga, Adrian Bedua, Martin Oliver Zacharias and John Mark Dingson. (RCM)
