SEAG Cuesports: Amit settles for silver, Reyes gets bronze
The Philippines' Billiards SEA Games campaign went awry on Saturday with an early loss by grief-stricken Iris Ranola in Women's 9 Ball and an upset in the final featuring Rubilen Amit.
Rubilen "Bingkay" Amit lost the gold medal match to the rapidly-improving Angeline Ticoalu of Indonesia by a surprisingly easy 7-2 scoreline and will fail to garner a gold medal for the second SEA Games in a row. Amit has two SEA Games Golds from 2005 and 2009.
Amit drew a bye in her first round match on Friday, then on Saturday outclassed Fathran Masum 7-4 in her quarterfinal assignment at the Wunna Theikdi Billiards hall in Myanmar's capital city of Nyawpyitaw.
The Mandaue, Cebu native who captured her second Women's World 10 Ball Championship recently, then edged Thi Ngoc Le Doan of Vietnam 7-6 in the semis before shockingly falling short against Ticoalu.
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Earlier in the day, Ticoalu had eliminated Ranola 7-2 in the quarters. Ranola learned upon arriving in Myanmar that her father passed away in her hometown of Zamboanga after a long battle with cancer. Apparently the 2011 SEA Games Women's 8 Ball Singles Gold Medalist was understandably not in the best emotional state to play her best.
Efren Reyes, entered in Men's Singles One Cushion Carom, wound up with a bronze medal. The Pampanga legend bettered Thailand's Suriya Suwannasingh 100 to 47 in his quarterfinal contest then was defeated in his final four encounter.
Fellow Pinoy carom artist Francisco de la Cruz also came up on top in his quarters match versus another Thai, Thongchai Punyawee via an 87-25 score, only to lose in the semifinals to Vietnam's Dinh Tien Dang to settle for a bronze.
One Cushion is a Billiards game played on a pocketless, ten-foot table with a heated slate and only three balls. The object of the game is for a player to strike a cue ball, make it hit another ball, go off one rail, and hit the third ball to get one point and keep on shooting.
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Vietnam is a former French colony, and they have adopted their former colonizer's taste for this discipline, producing many champions even in Three-Cushion Billiards, the more challenging variant of the game.
According to the bracket, two Filipinos were slated to play in the Men's Singles 6 Red Snooker competition. But with Rodolfo Lordan and Michael Mengerio not sent to Myanmar, their opponents, both Laotians, won by walkover and progressed to the second round.
6 Red Snooker is the shorter variant of Snooker, using only six red balls instead of the fifteen in the traditional version of the game.
Dennis Orcollo and Carlo Biado remain as Filipino gold medal threats in Men's 9 Ball and 10 Ball.
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