Raga falls short of Euro crown

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines’ Anthony Raga came a combination away from the biggest pool victory of his life.

Until nerves got in the way as the Cebuano nicknamed “The Dragon” miscalculated a 6-7 combo in the 25th and final rack that gave Spain’s David Alcaide an epic 13-12 hill-hill victory and the European Pool Championship crown last Sunday in Fuda, Germany.

It was a heartbreaking defeat for the 26-year-old former University of Cebu-METC nautical student as he missed that critical shot and cost him his biggest triumph to date.

Instead, it was the Spanish conquistador and former two-time World Pool Masters king who ran away with the triumph and the top purse worth $30,000.

The Filipino money-game monster, for his part, settled for the runner-up prize amounting to $15,000 or P854,000.

It wasn’t a bad performance though for Raga as he showed he could hang with the big guns of the sport.

In fact, he caught some big fish along the way including former world champions Ko Pin-yi of Chinese Taipei, 10-0, in the round-of-32 and Joshua Filler of Germany, 11-9, in the semis.

In the finals, Raga engaged Alcaide in a staring match that saw nine deadlocks with neither of the two leading by more than three racks.

In the end, Raga blinked first.