MAKATI CITY, PHILIPPINES---It wasn't all roses for the Philippines team in the billiards and snooker competition of the 23rd Southeast Asian Games.
For the first time in the competition the dreaded Filipino pool and snooker players artists failed to produce a gold medal, but thanks to veteran campaigner Reynaldo Grandea chipped a bronze medal in the one-cushion carom singles by beating compatriot Francisco Dela Cruz, 200-145, in the battle for third.
The Filipinos absorbed similar lopsided defeats at the hands of Vietnamese bets in the semifinals. Grandea bowed to Le Phuoc Loi, 125-200, while Dela Cruz lost to Nguyen Thanh Sinh, 124-200, yesterday at the Makati Coliseum.
Disaster struck at the snooker table as Joven Alba and Leonardo ?Dodong? Andam fell by the wayside in the preliminaries of the snooker singles.
Issara Kachaiwong of Thailand handed Alba a 4-2 defeat while Lee Trong Ngoc of Vietnam blanked Andam, 4-0.
"The guys played their best but the Vietnamese played very well. one-cushion carom is their forte," said Ernesto Fajardo, Billiards and Snooker Congress of the Philippines (BSCP) president who watched the competition from day one last Sunday.
"But like Putch (Puyat) said, we had a bigger chnace to dominates the 9-ball pool men's and women's singles competition."
But here's a good news folks, Filipina Rubilen "Bingkay" Amit beat Malaysian Esther Kwan Suet Yee, 11-1, in the quarters and old rival Singaporean Hoe Shu Wah of Singapore, 11-3 in the semi-final round late Saturday to reach the finals today, Sunday at 1:00 pm.
Amit, a look-a-like of former TV child actress Aiza Seguerra will takes on Malaysian Suhana Dewi B Sabtu for the gold medal, winner over Singaporean Tan Bee Yen, 11-8, and Thailander Santinee Jaisuekul, 11-7, respectively.
"I need to focus more against Suhana. Just pray for me." said Amit regarding his game today to against Suhana.
The Thai lady pool master also ousted another Filipina entries Mary Ann Basas, 11-7, in the preliminaries of the morning session.
It shall be recalled, that the 24-year-old Taguig residents defeated Hoe in the women's 8-ball pool finals to bag the gold medal late Wednesday.
Alex "The Lion" Pagulayan and Gandy "Sapsal" Valle---two RP bets in the men's 9-ball pool singles competition is schedule to face in their first assignments late Saturday via race-to-eleven format.
Pagulayan, the only triple gold winner in the billiards and snooker competitions will meet Thai ace Worawit Suriyasriwan while the native Davao City Valle test the mettle of Filipino-Malaysian no.1 player Ibrahim Bin Amir.
Another interesting match up last night between Brunei's HRH Prince HJ Al-Muhtadee Bilah versus Viet Luong Chi Dung.
The over-all championships Filipinos now has a seven gold medal, two silver and one bronze to surface the 1991 Manila SEA Games edition where the countries hauled sixth gold, four gold courtesy of Leonardo Andam.
