Andam advances in world tiff

Leonardo "Dodong" Andam, the talented but often overshadowed player back home, sustained his romp in the Admiral World Pool Championship as he racked up two more victories Monday to formalize his stint in the knockout stage of the $300,000 event in Cardiff, Wales.

As compatriot Efren "Bata" Reyes failed to match his march with a loss to Canadian Johyn Horsfall, Andam, who beat Reyes for the top $20,000 purse in last year’s San Miguel Beer International Masters Challenge at the Casino Filipino, emerged the only unbeaten Filipino in the event heading into the final day of the elims among the world’s top 128 players.

Andam outclassed Holland’s Rico Diks, 5-1, then whipped American Dee Adkins, 5-2, for a sweep of his first five games in Group 16 although he is expected to slow down in his last two matches in the round-robin elims in preparation for the next round where play shifts to knockout among the surviving 64 players.

Despite his 2-5 setback to Horsfall, Reyes, who earlier went four-of-four with a 5-2 win over Athanasios Vrakas of Greece, remained on top of Group 8 and will join Andam in the next round of this event which Reyes ruled in 1999 that put the Philippines in the world pool stage and further popularized the sport here.

Francisco "Django" Bustamante, who with Reyes lead the crack Puyat Sports-backed RP squad in the event, firmed up his bid with two victories, beating Vincent Facquet of France, 5-1, and thumping Peruvian Manuel Chau, 5-2, to share the Group 13 lead with American Tony Frank.

Rodolfo "Boy Samson" Luat likewise posted twin wins to underscore the Filipinos’ relentless charge, downing Korean Park Sin-young, 5-2, earlier before nipping American Bill Stephen, 5-4. He shared third place in Group 6 with Tommy Donlon of Ireland and Alwi of Indonesia with identical six points.

Ramil Gallego, whose stint here is also sponsored by Puyat Sports, came away with back-to-back victories to remain in the hunt for a spot in the tough Group I paced by Englishman Chris Melling. He won over Greek Apostolois Alexandria, 5-2, then snatched a 5-4 victory over Brazilian Fabio Luersen for joint second.

Warren Kiamco and Antonio Lining, however, have a lot of catching up to do to advance as the former split his matches and remained tied for fifth in Group 7 and the latter dropping a sorry 4-5 decision to Taiwanese Yang Ching-shun.