The beautiful Island of Curacao (Netherlands Antilles) hosted the Pan-American 9-Ball Championships from June 3rd through the 6th; the most prestigious event in the Region. After four great championship days, the Pan American Billiard Federation (CPB) and the Curacao Billiard Federation (FEBIKO) are proud to announce the new 2004 Pan American Champions:
Mr. Alan Rolon from Puerto Rico and Mrs. Adriana Villar from Costa Rica.
The Venue for the Pan American Championship was the Granbeeuw Entertainment Center in Curacao. Hosting a field of the "crème de le crème", 48 male players and 18 female players from South America, Central America and the Caribbean made it to the Pan-American. Every year the Pan American Championship is getting tougher and tougher with this year players like Ismael "El Morro" Paez and Ernesto Dominguez. The format was double-elimination.
Alan Rolon started the event with 9-8 wins over Johnny Hellmund from Curacao and Alejandro Carvajal from Chile. In both matches Alan wasn't playing to his max, but on day 2 and 3 Rolon became a monster and "nobody was able to stop him." This is according to Ditto Acosta, 2002 Pan-American Champion and last year's runner-up.
Marco Valencia (Panama) reached the men's final undefeated. He was now waiting for the match to end between Alan Rolon and Lino Castillo (Panama). Alan Rolon is the number one player from Puerto Rico and was showing great skills with his wins but he was sent to the loser's round by Marco Valencia in the semis, however, Alan's play was growing "monstrous" during the tournament and he dispatched Lino with a great 9-1 run. Now Alan was set to get his revenge against Marco Valencia.
In the Finals Alan Rolon played his best match of the tournament. It seems that what decided the match was Alan's awesome breaks. If there was a ball sunk on the break, Alan cleared the table. Alan Rolon cleared the table five (5) times in a row which gave him a huge advantage that Marco Valencia could do nothing against. The new Pan-American Champion won the Finals with an astonishing 11-1 result.
The Curacao Billiard Federation stated that both players were very well behaved and demonstrated true player' professionalism during the entire tournament.
Adrian Villar's Championship:
The Woman's Final seemed to be a repeat of the Men's Final with Mirjana Crujicic (Venezuela) taking a 5-1 lead against Adriana Villar (Costa Rica); a 2-time finalist in previous Pan American 9 Ball Championships including last year.
Adriana Villar was determined to not let this Title slip away once again. She made a tremendous effort and comeback to win this emotionally loaded final with a convincing result of 9-7.
Adriana won her way to the Title after winning against the new kid on the block Ghyslaine Kock (Aruba); who in turn won against last year's Pan American 9-ball Champion Laura Famin (Argentina) in the semi-finals of the winners round.
Mirjana Crujicic was waiting in the other bracket and got her ticket to the Finals by winning against Ghyslaine Kock from Aruba.
Pan-American Championship serves as World Pool Championships qualifier:
The Pan-American 9 Ball Championships also served as qualifiers for the next World Pool Championships to be held in Taipei -Taiwan, and Johannesburg, Africa.
The eight (8) men qualifiers for the World Pool 9-ball Championships are:
1. Alan Rolon (Puerto Rico), 2. Marco Valencia (Panama), 3. Lino Castillo (Panama), 4. Richard Wolff (Aruba), 5. Ernesto Dominguez (Mexico), 6. Giovanni Orozco (Costa Rica) 7. John Lopez (Peru) & Gustavo Espinoza (Argentina).
The two (2) female qualifiers for the World Pool 9-ball Championships to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa are:
1. Adriana Villar and 2. Mirjana Crujicic.
The Curacao Billiard Federation wants to thank everyone that made it possible to hold this Pan American 9-ball Championship. This includes all participating Federations, Players, Delegates, and sponsors; specially The Curacao Tourist Board, Sedreko, Maduro & Curiel's Bank, Curacao Federation Board Members and all Tournament Referees.
The Curacao Billiard Federation hopes that everyone enjoyed their stay here on the beautiful island of Curacao and we hope to see you all soon again for our next ventures.
Note: Information provided by the Curacao Billiard Federation and the Aruba Billiard Federation through Harold Acosta - President of the Puerto Rican Billiard Federation.
