Philippines beats arch-rival Chinese Taipei, reaches World Team Pool semis
The Philippines and Chinese Taipei have crossed swords in both football and basketball in recent times, with our neighbors coming out on top. But in the sport of Pocket Billiards, Pinoy pride won the day in Beijing on Thursday.
Dennis Orcollo, Lee Vann Corteza, Carlo Biado and Rubilen Amit outplayed Chinese Taipei, the defending champions of this event, 4-2, to seal a semifinal match up with China 1 in the World Pool-Billiard Association World Team Pool Championship.
Taipei, who this year fielded Chang Jung Lin, Ko Pin Yi, Hsu Kai Lun, Fu Che Wei, and Chou Chieh Yu, won this event in 2012 but succumbed to the firepower of the Filipinos at the Tongzhou Luhe High School.
Orcollo gunned down old foe Chang 7-6 mens' 10 ball singles. The 10 ball mixed doubles also went to the hill, with Biado and Amit dropping Fu and Chou 7-6. Amit doubled up on Chou by overwhelming her 8-4 in 9 ball singles. Corteza did lose his 9 ball singles match 8-5 and Biado and Corteza also fell in the 8 ball doubles but with Orcollo taking the 8 ball singles match 6-3, the Philippines had the points to come out on top.
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The Pinoys next meet a dangerous “China 1” team in this biennial event. China 1 is composed of former World 9 Ball finalist Li He Wen, reigning womens 9 ball world champ Han Yu, Taiwanese-born former world champ Wu Jiaqing (neé Wu Chia Ching), and another star of the ladies circuit, Chen Siming. This Chinese team toppled Poland 4-1 in the quarters to seal a semis berth.
Japan needed a shootout to upset favored Germany in their quarterfinal after the teams were locked at 3-3 after six matches. In the shootout, the players take turns trying to cut in a table-length eight ball, with the first team to pocket six shots and also have a two-shot advantage claiming victory. The Japanese team bannered by Naoyuki Oi and Hayato Hijikata won the shootout 7-5, sending Ralf Souquet, Thorsten Hohmann, Sebastian Staab, and Ina Kaplan packing.
Japan now faces China 2 in the semis. This Chinese team features Liu Haitao as its senior male player and Liu Shasha and the elegant Fu Xiao Fang in the ladies contingent.
The semis will be played on Friday night with the final lagging on Saturday night,
The Philippines romped through their group assignments by downing Bulgaria 5-1, edging a tough USA squad 4-2, then obliterating Poland 6-0.
In the round of 16 Indonesia were no match for the Philippines, with Orcollo and company prevailing over their fellow Southeast Asians 4-0.
This event features 25 teams representing 24 nations (the hosts get two teams) split up into six group of four (one group had five teams) with the top sixteen reaching the playoff stages.
Great Britain won the inaugural running of the competition in 2010 by beating the Philippines in the final via a shootout.
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Corteza and Orcollo are going to try and win a second team event for the Philippines after ruling last year's World Cup of Pool. Amit is also no stranger to team play, having won the World Mixed Doubles championship alongside Efren Reyes on two occasions.
The total prize money is US$300,000 with the winning team taking home US$80,000 and the runners-up US$40,000
An intermittent live streaming site can be found here, while updates on the competition's official Facebook page can be found here. You can also follow the WPA's media officer Ted Lerner on Twitter @poolwpa.
Follow Bob on Twitter @PassionateFanPH.
