Wildcards shake up pool meet

Only five Filipino cue artists had automatic tickets to compete in the 41-nation, nine-day $350,000 World Pool Championships ending this Sunday in Taipei.

Seeded were Puyat Sports stablemates Efren (Bata) Reyes, Francisco (Django) Bustamante, Warren Kiamco and Lee Van Corteza. Additionally, veteran Jose (Amang) Parica of Team Solar Sports received a special invitation from event organizer Matchroom Sport to participate in the 128-man tournament.

So the seven other Filipino entries made it via the backdoor. Five of the seven wore the Team Solar Sports colors. They were Antonio (Nikoy) Lining, "Marvelous" Marlon Manalo, Antonio (Gaga) Gabica, Dennis (Surigao) Orcullo and Gandy (Yang Yang) Valle. Also advancing from the grueling qualifiers were free agents Rodolfo (Boy Samson) Luat and Ramil Gallego.

All seven Filipinos who flew to Taipei to try their luck in the qualifiers pulled through.

In all, the Philippines sent 12 pool sharks to the tournament proper. Only host Taiwan and the US had more entries with 13 each.

Team Solar Sports manager Arnold Arandilla accompanied Parica and the five wildcard qualifiers to Taipei.

Rico Arce of Solar Sports said sponsoring the six billiards stars reflects the company’s commitment to the Filipino athlete. Solar Sports took care of the six players’ transportation, hotel, living and other expenses during the competition. It also footed their tournament fee.

"We knew it was a risk because five of our six players had to survive the qualifiers to enter the main draw," said Arce. "But Solar Sports was confident. We were ready to support our players all the way. The essence of our campaign is to back up Filipino world-class athletes in international competitions. This is for national pride."

Solar Sports also sponsors world boxing champion Manny Pacquiao via an exclusive contract to air his fights on Philippine TV.

Arce said Solar Sports president William Tieng and executive vice president Peter Chan Liong provided all-out support for the six pool players. He noted that Luat and Gallego would’ve also been sponsored by Solar Sports but they could not be contacted before their departure.

Of the 12 Filipino entries, only Parica–making his World Pool Championships debut–failed to roll to the Last 64. As a consolation, seven Americans were bumped off, too, and 19 countries were scratched out as contenders, leaving only 22 with survivors.

Parica, the US Open runner-up last year, wasn’t seeded because of a quirk in his residence status. He couldn’t be nominated by the Billiards Congress of America because he’s not a citizen despite campaigning extensively in the US. Parica also couldn’t be nominated by the Asian Pocket Billards Union because as a Filipino citizen, he’s not active in the regional circuit.

But organizers disregarded Parica’s ambiguous status and offered an automatic slot in the 16-group eliminations.

Unfortunately, Parica was the only casualty in the Filipino brigade at the end of the eliminations. He was quoted in numerous interviews before leaving for Taipei that he was out to prove he’s not over the hill. It appeared that Parica put too much pressure on himself.

Lining wore flip-flops instead of a shoe because of a left foot injury and beat Taiwan’s Liang Liu, 9-5, to earn a qualifying slot in group 5.

Manalo won the first qualifying event by beating hometowner Chun Chiang Wu, 9-6. A double silver medalist at the Vietnam Southeast Asian (SEA) Games last year, Manalo was upset that he was not seeded despite winning all his group matches like Reyes and Canada’s transplanted Filipino Alex Pagulayan in the previous World Championships in Cardiff.