Friday, May 09, 2008 Sun.Star-Superbalita 9-ball tourney opens in June
THE annual Sun.Star-Super Balita 9-Ball Challenge is set to kick off next month for its eighth year as the biggest and most prestigious billiard tournament in the South.
Every year, Sun.Star has its endeavor to encourage and bring in world-top billiard players like Ronnie Alcano, Dennis Orcollo and Lee Van Corteza not only to compete for the title and top prize of P160,000 but also to impart their expert billiards moves with the amateurs and pool aficionados.
In line with this, last Tuesday in the opening of the Manny Villar Cup Billiards Tournament, Sun.Star assistant vice president (AVP) for circulation Rene Besido and Billiards Manager and Players Association of the Philippines (BMPAP) Visayas coordinator Chris Rodriguez met with Putch Puyat (Puyat Sports owner) and Perry Mariano (Bugsy Promotions), managers of the finest billiard players in the world.
Besido and Rodriguez are tapping to invite world legend Efren “Bata” Reyes and Francisco “Django” Bustamante in the forthcoming Sun.Star-Superbalita 9-ball tournament. Although there are no final decisions yet from both camps, Sun.Star is doing their best to summon Francisco and Bustamante to the tournament for a three-day breath-taking match in the Queen City of the South.
But according to Puyat and Mariano, they are so much willing to commit their best cue players but still they have to consider also the purse a billiard player would earn in a certain tournament. As founders of BMPAP, they are also encouraging Sun.Star, since the outfit is recognized as an advocate of billiard, to have a chapter of BMPAP in Cebu.
The tournament is divided into four divisions: elementary, high school, Class B, and Class A or the Open Division. The first three divisions are done ahead of the Open Division where the top-caliber players line-up and compete for the top cash prizes. The tentative cash prize for this year for the Class A division is P160,000; the first runner-up gets P80,000; second runner-up, P40,000; and the third runner-up will take home P20,000.
Sun.Star is still looking for more sponsors to be able to provide big cash prizes and more exciting event this year, for billiard enthusiasts.
For last year, the elementary and high school division champions received P5,000, while their first runners-up got P3,000. The second runners-up earned P1,500 and the third runners-up got P1,000. The champion in Class B got P20,000 with P10,000 going to the losing finalist. The second and third runners-up took home P5,000 and P2,500, respectively. Class B players came all the way from different parts of the Visayas and Mindanao. The whole tournament this year will run from June to July.
There are still no final registration dates and fees but details of the event will be eventually posted on www.sunstar.com.ph. Last year, former World Pool Champion Alex “The Lion” Pagulayan bagged the title for the tournament’s open division. (JRDB/Sunnex)
