Sunday, November 12, 2006
RP's Luat bows out in World Pool Championship
By Marianne L. Saberon-Abalayan
RP CUE artist Rodolfo "Boy Samson" Luat bowed to Chinese Taipei bet Fu Che-Wei, 7-11, in the quater-finals of the 2006 Philippines World Pool Championship at the Philippine International convention Center (PICC) Saturday.
Luat's loss gave the host country another blow after 19 other Filipino players led by Efren "Bata" Reyes, Francisco "Django" Bustamante and Alex Pagulayan were eliminated in earlier rounds.
Ronato Alcano, who is the last man standing for Team Philippines, was still playing Wu Chia-ching as of presstime.
Fu Che Wei entered the WPC semi-finals for the first time. He made it to the Round of 32 in 2003 and 2004 then ended his stint in Round of 64 last year. Thus, this year is his best finish so far despite the outcome of his semis match.
It was Luat's second quarterfinal appearance after he reached the same stage in the 2000 edition of the world's premier billiards spectacle. He ousted Davao City-born Lee Vann Corteza tormentor David Alcaide of Malaga, Spain in the Round of 16 Friday night.
Luat will still receive $10,000 for his quarterfinals finish while Fu Che Wei is assured to earn $20,000 for advancing to the semis round.
Dabawenyo Gandy "Yang-Yang" Sapsal-Valle also joined the event but failed to qualify to the knockout stages. Filipinos Jose Parica, Antonio Lining, Marlon Manalo, Leonardo Andam, Rudy Morta, Dennis Orcollo, Roberto Gomez, Israel Rota, Jeff de Luna, Ramil Gallego, Romeo Villanueva, Rolando Garcia, Santos Sambajon and Jharome Peña.
A $100,000 cash prize awaits the champion.For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star General Santos. (November 12, 2006 issue)
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