Philippines hosts Sharks International 9-Ball Open
THE BILLIARDS world already knew how good Filipinos are in the sport.
But from July 24 to 29 at the Sharks Arena and Sports Bar in Tomas Morato, Quezon City, they would know deep the country’s talent pool is as the Philippines hosts the Sharks International 9-Ball Open that drew some of the sport’s finest including Taipei’s Ko Pin Yi and Russia’s Geder Gorst.
“They have been saying that this event will be one of the hardest to win in the world because they know we have a deep talent pool,” said chief event organizer Hadley Mariano in yesterday’s PSA Forum at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex.
Mr. Mariano said a total of 128 participants — 64 foreign bets and 64 local ones — are seeing action in the competition that stakes a total cash purse worth $100,000 including $30,000 to the champion and $15,000 to the runner-up.
Since the country will get to host an international event for the first time in a long while, the host is putting its best foot forward by fielding the nation’s brightest stars including newly crowned World Cup of Pool champions Johann Chua and James Aranas.
Mr. Chua said this is just one of the many tournaments he and Mr. Aranas are joining with the others being the Taiwan Open in August, one in Germany the next month and another in Vietnam in October.
For Mr. Mariano, they have lined up for more big events this year.
“We have more tournaments in the pipeline for this year and we’re happy billiards is getting noticed again,” he said. — Joey Villar
