 Rodney Morris |
MANILA, PHILIPPINES---Rodney Morris and Marcus Chamat will spearhead the international team in the Kabayan World 9-Ball Challenge: Philippines vs. Rest of the World on Nov. 12-13 at the Filipiniana Hotel in Calapan City, Oriental Mindoro.
Morris, a multi-titled player, and Chamat are two of the fancied players in the World Pool Championship, which opens today at the Araneta Coliseum.
"Any five Filipino professional cue artists are hard to beat," said Morris, a former US Open and World Pool League champion. "But nobody's unbeatable in this game."
Chamat, married to a Filipina, is a veteran of several team competitions being a mainstay of Team Europe in the Mosconi Cup.
He won the World Summit of Pool in 2005, a year after stopping the marvelous run of Marlon Manalo in the quarterfinals of the World Pool Championship in Taipei, Taiwan.
They will meet again in Calapan City.
Manalo will be the chief mate of reigning world champion Ronnie Alcano in the Team Philippines, which also includes 2006 Asian Games gold medalist Antonio Gabica, 1998 Asian Games gold medalist Gandy Valle and Manny Pacquiao International 9-Ball Open winner Jeffrey De Luna.
The other players in the international team are Darren Appleton of England, Karl Boyes of the United Kingdom and John Higgins of Scotland.
Appleton is the world's top ranked English 8-Ball Pool player while Boyes is the 2004 World Cup singles champion. Higgins, on the other hand, is a legend in snooker with three world titles on his belt.
The winning team in the event supported by Pagcor, PCSO, Department of Tourism, San Miguel Corporation, Benjie Javier of N Computing, Accel, Solar Sports, Business Mirror, Manila Times and the local officials of Oriental Mindoro will receive $20,000 while the losing team will go home with $10,000.
Each player will face all the players of the opposing team in 10-rack matches.
A win is worth two points while a draw is worth one point. The event will use the match-point system. In case of a tie, the team with more racks won will be declared champion.
