FIVE Filipino players has gone down, but reigning National Junior champion Jericho Banares made it to the knockout stage, boosting hopes for homegrown talents in the ongoing 2008 WPA World Ten Ball Championship (WTBC) at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City.
Banares, who is scheduled to represent the country along with RP's child prodigy Jonas Magpantay in the forthcoming 2008 WPA World Junior of Pool Championship on Nov 30th to Dec 4th in Reno Nevada, upset 2003 WPA World 9-Ball ruler Thorsten "The Hitman" Hohmann of Germany, 9-7 on the tv table.
With the win, Banares joins 2000 Hongkong Asian Snooker Champion Marlon Manalo, 1997 Jakarta Southeast Asian Games 9-ball gold medalist Victor Arpilleda, 2006 Solar-RP 9-Ball Open runner-up Leonardo "Dodong" Didal and fast-rising Demosthenes Pulpul in the Round of 64. All of them are now guaranteed at least $2,000 in this $400,000 total prize event with the champion getting the lion share of $100,000.
Middle East pool instructor Mario "Aklan" Tolentino and Elmer "Buddy" Kalaquian became the latest Filipino casualties in the 13-man RP contingent, as they were unable to overcome the tough challenge against their foreign counterpart yesterday.
Tolentino, a habitué of famous Star Billiards Center in Grace Village, Quezon City bowed to Taiwanese Lung-chang Lu, 5-9, while Kalaquian, a former high school teacher in Bataan turned professional pool player was yielded to Chinese ace Wang Ming, 6-9.
Last Monday, Florencio Banar was eliminated, losing to Hsien-Lee Po of Chinese-Taipei, 5-9. Elvis Calasang bowed to Banares, 3-9, in an all Filipino match on Tuesday, and 2006 Doha Asian Games 9-ball gold medalist Antonio Gabica succumbed to Martin Larsen of Switzerland, 7-9.
Meanwhile, Jeffrey De Luna, the 2007 Manny Pacquiao International 9-ball open ruler, will play Marco Tschudi of Switzerland. Unheralded Arnel Bautista drew Amnuay Porn Chotipong of Thailand and BSCP founding chair Edgar "Malabon" Acaba slugs it out with Christian Weigoni of Germany with the winner advancing to the next round.
Also advancing into the Last 64 today are former two-time Asian Games 9-ball gold winner Ching-Shun Yang and Chia-hsiung Lai of Chinese-Taipei, Fabio Petroni of Italy, Imran Majid of India, Kazuo Furutan of Japan, Woong Dae-king of Korea, Ricky Yang of Indonesia and Stevie Moore of the United States.
