Front Page
 RP News  
 Community News
 Immigration
 Commentaries
 Business
 Sports 
 Entertainment
 Features
 Announcements
 News Archives

SPORTS
Links

Archived Sports Stories

Copyright ©1999, 2000 by Radio-TV Pilipino Network, Inc. All rights reserved. Radio-TV Pilipino™, Basta Pinoy!™ News and Asiana Post™ are trademarks of Radio-TV Pilipino, Inc. Terms of use. Privacy policy.

BASTA PINOY! PORTS REVIEW

Andam saves day for R.P. in world pool

MANILA, July 5  -- On a day marked by the exit of
Francisco "Django" Bustamante and Warren Kiamco, Leonardo "Dodong" Andam saved the day for the Philippines when he walloped his rival in the $250,000 World Pool Championship round-of-64 at the Cardiff
International Arena in Cardiff, Wales.

Andam, the $50,000 Match of the Masters champion, breezed past 16th seed Thomas Engert of Germany, 9-3, to give the Philippine team a reason to celebrate despite the debacles of Bustamante and Kiamco.

Bustamante, the country's No. 2 player and seeded sixth in the tournament, was the first to fall in the five-man Puyat Sports team as he absorbed a heartbreaking 9-6 loss to unknown 23-year-old
Niels Feyen of the Netherlands.

Unseeded Warren Kiamco couldn't sustain the momentum of his 7-3 victory over Dominic Dale of Wales in the preliminary draw followed suit after a 5-9 loss to Shin Young Park of Korea.

Andam, who is known in the U.S. billiards circuit as "The Rattlesnake," a monicker he earned after topping the Dallas Open in 1995, assured himself of $1,750 and he could earn more if he hurdled his opponent in the round-of-32. 

It was a fine display of pool wizardry by Andam, who had a rickety start in the elimination phase, winning just two of his first five games and almost didn't make it to the next phase.

Andam eased out Raj Hundal of England, by conceding less racks, 29 to 32, in the countback.
Efren "Bata" Reyes, the defending champion and the other half of R.P.'s one-two combination, and Rodolfo "Boy Samson" Luat are the only other Filipinos remaining to carry the fight together with Andam.

Reyes, who won last year's edition of the tournament and the $60,000 top purse, faces six-time world snooker champion Steve Davis in a race-to-9 encounter.

Luat will have his hands full against No. 15 Michael "T-Rain" Coltrain of the United States.

Reyes, installed by booksmakers as 4-1 favorite, finished the elimination phase with a 4-1 mark, good for 9th in the 64-man draw rankings while Luat is ranked 30th.

Alex Pagulayan defeated Edwin Montal, 9-3, in a battle of two Filipinos representing Canada. Pagulayan, who topped group 9 with a 4-1 mark, is a long-time U.S. billiards circuit campaigner while
Montal is a native of San Fernando, Pampanga.
Bustamante, who settled for a $1,000 consolation like Kiamco, zoomed to a seemingly insurmountable 5-0 lead but Feyen, a native of The Hague, managed to bounce back with six straight victories.

Bustamante's breaking power was no match for Feyen, whose accurate breaks and pinpoint shotmaking allowed him to control the
table and within the space of an hour, he found himself 6-5 up and looked back to score the biggest upset so far in the tournament.

When the final 9-ball dropped, the strong Dutch contingent in the crowd went absolutely wild as Feyen saluted them.

"For the first half of the match I was just sitting there
looking for a break. I felt nervous and there was a lot of pressure from the crowd," said Feyen. "But once I got to the table I really started to enjoy myself. I was breaking really well in practice and that continued on the match table. Now I'm just going to have some
fun and turn on the heat against Ortmann." (SNS)

REQUEST FOR A COMPLIMENTARY COPY

 Refresh your browser to make sure latest update is shown.
 News Items on this website are for private use and must not be reproduced, printed or reposted without our written permission.
copyright (c) 2000 by Radio-TV Pilipino Network, Inc.