Subic Open pool meet under way

Thirty two players, including 12 foreign bets will battle it out at the start of the Subic-Olongapo Open Pool Championship to be held at the Olongapo Convention Center today. .

Led by two-time World Junior Champion Ko Pin Yi of Chinese-Taipei, the foreign cue artists will come here in Philippine soil in pursuit of the Richard Gordon golden trophy donated by Mayor James Gordon and the top prize of $ 10,000.

Mayor Gordon will be there to open up hostilities to be assisted by Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority administrator Armand Arreza starting 10 a.m.

Ko, now Chinese-Taipei’s fast rising star in pool, is the top seed in this event organized by Raya Sports with the support of Star Billiards and the Billiards and Snooker Congress of the Philippines. The event is also jointly hosted by the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority and the Olongapo City government.

Jericho Banares of the Philippines, who placed second to Ko in the World Junior meet in Reno, Nevada, last year, is the No.2 seed in this tournament. He is expected to carry the fight for the local bets.

Other notable Filipino players entered in this event are Demosthenes Pulpul and power breaking Jeff de Luna.

Pulpul made it all the way as far as the semifinal round of last year’s inaugural staging of the World Ten Ball Championship in Manila.

De Luna is the champion of last year’s Manny Pacquiao International billiards tournament.

The 11 other foreign competitors ready to steal the spotlight also include Fu Che Wei of Chinese Taipei, a top four player in his country and a consistent performer in international circuit. He is the third-ranked player here in Subic.

Other foreign bets include Ricky Yang of Indonesia (5), Amir Ibrahim of Malaysia (6), Japanese veteran cue artist Kenji Taguchi and Lu Hui-Chan of Chinese-Taipei.

Eight players made it to the main draw Sunday by virtue of their solid showing in the Stage 1 of the event held at the Star Billiards Center. The players who made it to the main draw were Luis Saberdo, Ericson Navarette, Ramil Gadjala, Boots Augusto, Roland Garcia and Alex Nobleza of the Philippines and Wieto Siauw and Ridu Susanto of Indonesia. TEMPO