Source: abs-cbnnews.com
-- Five Philippine billiard “heavyweights” will lead the country’s campaign to win the second World Ten-Ball Championship slated on November 25 to 30 at the World Trade Center in Pasay City.
Pool masters Dennis “Robocop” Orcollo, Ronato “Volcano” Alcano, Marlon “Marvelous” Manalo, Lee Vann “The Slayer” Corteza and Warren “Warrior” Kiamco are among the Filipinos who secured spots in the 128 player-main draw for the biggest billiards competition this year.
Orcollo is the reigning Predator International 10-Ball champion while Alcano won the 2009 World Galveston Classic 8-Ball. Manalo ruled the 2009 Blaze 9-Ball as Corteza reigned supreme in the 2009 Derby City Classic 10-ball.
Kiamco finished runner-up in the 2009 World Galveston Classic 10-Ball and scored third place in the 2009 All Japan 9-Ball Championship.
Other Filipino pool wizards who made the draw are 2008 WTBC 4th placer Demosthenes “Plong-Plong” Pulpul, 2006 Doha Asian Games 9-ball gold medalist Antonio “Ga-Ga” Gabica, 2007 Manny Pacquiao International 9-Ball Champion Jeffrey “The Bull” De Luna, 2008 WPA World Junior finalist Jerico Banares and Allan Cuartero.
“It’s going to be the toughest tournament of the year,” said Yen Makabenta, chairman of Raya Sports, organizer of the WTBC. “All the top players are competing, every major pool powerhouse in the world has a contingent, and all national and regional champions will be here.”
Unlike last year, the second edition of the World Ten-Ball Championship will be an all-male affair and will miss the likes of Jasmin Ouschan of Austria, who made waves last year by making her stand against the male competitors. Starting this year, female players now have their own world 10-ball championship.
Leading the foreigners who will invade the Philippine shores are reigning World Ten-ball champ Darren Appleton of Great Britain, current World No.1 Ralf Souquet of Germany, and two-time US Open champion Mika Immonen of Finland. They will also have plenty of challengers from every point of the globe.
Powerhouse countries like Great Britain, Germany, the US, Chinese-Taipei and host Philippines are fielding the most number of players in the competition, which carries the year’s biggest prize fund of $262,000.
Great Britain will strive to keep the world title with 10 players. Besides Appleton, the members of the British contingent are: 2007 world 9-ball champion Daryl Peach, Imran Majid, Scott Higgins, Craig Osborne, Karl Boyes, Jonni Fulcher, Ricardo Jones, Phil Burford and Chris Melling.
Souquet, 2008 world 8-ball champion and World Games gold medalist, leads the 9-man German contingent. The other players are: former world champions Thorsten Hohmann and Oliver Ortmann, Thomas Engert, Marko Vogel, Christoph Reintjes, Ralf Mund, Klaus Zobrekis and Benjamin Heimmerer.
The US contingent of 9 players is bannered by former US Open Shane Van Boening, former world champion Johnny Archer, Corey Deuel, Stevie Moore, Charlie Bryant, Shaun Wilkie, Charlie Williams, Shawn Putnam and Oscar Dominguez.
Chinese-Taipei, a billiard powerhouse in Asia, is represented by 9 formidable players: former two-time World 9-Ball champion Fong Pang Chao, money-game king Ching-Shun Yang, two-time world junior champion Pin-Yi Ko, Yu-Lung Chang, Po-Cheng Kuo, Tsung-Hua Cheng, Hui-chan Lu, Che-Wei Fu, and Hung-Hsiang Wang.
Five Japanese players are entered in the main draw – Hayato Hijikata, Yukio Akakariyama, Toru Kuribayashi, Naoyuki Ooi and Satoshi Kawabata.
Korea has four players in Young Hwa Jeong, Woong Dae Kim, Chul Mook Choi and Seung Woo Ryu.
China is represented by three international campaigners: Jian-Bo Fu, He-wen Li, and Hai-tao Liu.
Immonen will be joined by Markus Java in representing Finland.
Niels Feijen of the Netherlands, rated fourth in the world, will be joined by compatriots Nick Van Den Berg and Huidji See.
The other players who have secured spots in the main draw of the WTBC are:
Louis Condo and Ben Nunan (Australia), Mario He and Martin Kempter (Austria), Serge Das (Belgium), MB Alias (Brunei), Alain Martel, Raymond Cruz, Erik Hjorleifson, Adam Smith and Tyler Edey (Canada), Li Hewen, Fu Jianbo and Liu Haitao (China), Phil Stojanovic (Croatia), Roman Hybler (Czech Republic), Kasper Kristoffersen and Bahram Lofty (Denmark), Stephan Cohen and Vincent Facquet (France), Andreas Loukiadakis (Greece), Kenny Kwok (Hong Kong), I Alwi Alwi, Widi Harsoyo and Ricky Yang (Indonesia), Farhad Shahverdi (Iran), Fabio Petroni and Bruno Muratore (Italy), Ibrahim Bin Amir and Lee Poh Soon (Malaysia), Ignacio Chavez (Mexico), Vegar Kristiansen (Norway), Mateusz Sniegocki, Thomasz Kaplan, Mariusz Skoneczny and Radoslaw Babica (Poland), Basher Hussain, Abdulatef Fawal and Rashid Al Mari (Qatar), Konstantin Stepanov and Ruslan Chinakhov (Russia), Sandor Tot (Serbia), Tey Choon Kiat and Toh Lian Han (Singapore), Matjaz Erculj (Slovenia), Jason Theron and Alphonse Hoge (South Africa), David Alcaide and Rafael Guzman (Spain), Marcus Chamat (Sweden), Dimitri Jungo (Switzerland), Mehmet Cankurt and Ramazan Dincer (Turkey), Frailin Guanica and Jalal Youse (Venezuela) and Nguyen Anh Tuan (Vietnam).
Slovenia, Greece and Norway and Slovenia are joining the world championship for the first time.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
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