Tuesday, January 08, 2008 Django wins; Reyes falters
ALEX “The Lion” Pagulayan and Francisco “Django” Bustamante continued their winning ways to keep the Philippine flag high after eight rounds of the 2007 Derby City Classic Bank division at the Executive West Hotel in Kentucky yesterday.
However Puyat Sports stablemate and former Derby champion Efren “Bata” Reyes bowed out in the eighth round.
Pagulayan, the 2004 Taiwan World 9-Ball Champion and 2005 US Open 9-Ball kingpin, demolished John Schmidt. On the other hand, Bustamante nipped Jonathan Demet, while Reyes, acknowledged as the greatest player of all time bowed to Tony Fergerson.
Reyes, who is seeking to surpass his runnerup finish in the last year’s edition bowed out in this $100,000 annual series after earlier losing to Brent Jackson in fourth round.
Earlier, Pagulayan needed to get past Tiger Nail, Curtis Dehart, Shin Young Park and John Schmidt in Rounds 4 to 7.
Schmidt then used his buy in option to force a rematch with Pagulayan in the eight round but still lost.
Bustamante, on the other hand crushed Michael Collins, Tiger Nail, Gerald Reichle and Jeremy Jones in earlier rounds.
Undefeated
Pagulayan is the only Filipino with an undefeated record, while Bustamante, who earlier lost to unheralded Tom Spencer in the opening round, used buy in option to return the table.
Compatriots Rodolfo “Boy Samson” Luat, Santos “The Saint” Sambajon and Jose “Amang” Parica were also booted out in this event.
After losing his match to Edward Ames in the second round, Luat suffered his second loss to Tony Blankenship in the fourth round.
Sambajon suffered back-to-back losses to Mark Tadd and Shawn Putnam in the sixth and seventh round, while Parica, who surprised ex-world 9-ball champ Thorsten Hohman of Germany in the fifth round, lost to Larry Nevel in the sixth round for his second loss.
He also lost to Mark Slyle Jr. in the fourth round. (PR)
