Biado, five others survive Pinoy purge in World 9 Ball, Kiamco cries foul

While the Philippines' best faltered one after the other, five proud Filipino shooters lived to fight another day.

Carlo Biado, a former national 8 Ball champ, Antonio Gabica, last year's runner-up, veteran Ramil Gallego, and youngster Johann Chua are suddenly the hot favorites among the Filipinos in the 2014 WPA World 9 Ball Championship. It was a tough round of 64 in Doha, Qatar on Wednesday for the Philippines as the favored Pinoys fell to the wayside.

Dennis Orcollo was bundled out of the tournament after an 11-8 loss to Japanese veteran Naoyuki Oi. Lee Vann Corteza, after struggling to reach the knockout stage through the loser's bracket in his group, was stunned by local bet Waleed Majed 11-6 and is now just a spectator.

Jeffrey De Luna was another Filipino unable to make the round of 32 as he was upset by Canada's Jason Klatt, 11-6. A former winner of this event, Filipino-Canadian Alex Pagulayan was also relegated to the stands after stumbling to the youthful Austrian, Mario He via an 11-9 score.

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But the most contentious Filipino exit in the round of 64 was that of Cebuano Warren Kiamco, who was eliminated by China's Wang Can, 11-9.

Down 8-5, the Filipino rallied to take a 9-8 lead in the alternate-break format. But Wang then took an unscheduled toilet break on Kiamco's turn to shoot, despite the fact that the players had already taken the only scheduled timeout of the match after the ninth rack.

The Chinese shooter then went on to take the next three racks to win the match and gain a berth in the last 32.

Kiamco then went on to Facebook to vent about the lax application of the rule on the timeout, inferring that the confort room break by Wang was merely an act of gamesmanship to break the Pinoy's momentum.

“What kind of rules is that (sic) they let Wang Can to go toilet timeout (sic) on my turn to shoot WTFing rules is it (sic)” moaned Kiamco on his timeline.

“It's a shark's move and it's the referee's job to stop it” commented American pro Max Eberle. “Shark” is a Pool term that refers to a player who intentionally tries to distract or impede an opponent's with off-table antics.

Kiamco then revealed that he was “shy” to complain to Wang during the timeout because he is good friends with the Chinese player and even shares hotel rooms with him in travels to the states. But he did fault the tournament organizers for allowing his opponent to take the timeout.

Meanwhile Biado brushed aside the challenge of Poland's Mieszko Fortunski 11-6 to set a round of 32 date with Klatt. Joining him in the second knockout level is Chua, a former semifinalist at the All-Japan Championship. The Bacolodnon outclassed Italy's Daniele Corrieri 11-4 to earn a right to play Russian Konstantin Stepanov in the next round.

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Gabica downed a very game Medhi Razekhi of Iran 11-7 to set a round of 32 match versus Korea's Ryu Seung Woo.

Another Filipino progressing is Elmer Haya. The Abu-Dhabi-based son of Butuan made waves in the group stage when he dealt Corteza a 9-2 loss. On Wednesday he showed countryman Francisco Felicilda the door with an 11-4 rout. Haya now clashes with Hayato Hijikata of Japan for a spot in the last 16.

“The Pharoah” Raymond Faraon is another unheralded Filipino who will see action in Thursday's round of 32. He blitzed Taiwan's Liu Cheng Chieh 11-5 and sees Wang standing in his way in the next round.

Ramil Gallego is also through to the next round after edging Germany's Ralf Souquet in a gripping 11-10 match that nearly lasted three hours. (There is no shot clock in this tournament this year.)

Gallego made a terrific run out that included a kick- 3-6 combo and a banked three to go ahead 9-7. But the Kaiser pulled the next rack back. In rack 18 the Pinoy made four balls on the break but had no shot. Souquet eventually prevailed in a safety exchange to get to the hill. Bebeng then took the next rack to force a decisive rack 21.

Both made errors in the case game but Souquet's miss on a hard cut on the three was the last, and Gallego ran out for the win to the enthusiastic applause of the pro-Pinoy crowd. Gallego is slated to take on Dutchman Nick Van Den Berg next.

There will be a new winner this year as defending champ Thorsten Hohmann was knocked out by Marco Teutscher of the Netherlands, 11-9.

The action begins at 11:00 am on Thursday, Qatar time, which is 4:00 pm Philippine time. You can watch the free live streaming of all the tables on this link and you can view the bracket here.

Follow WPA press officer Ted Lerner on Twitter @poolwpa for updates. You can also follow the event's Facebook page here. Follow Bob on Twitter @PassionateFanPH.