Filipinos reach 9-ball semis in Asian Games
Two Filipino players advanced to the men's 9-ball pool singles semi-finals in the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games on Wednesday 17 November.
Warren Kiamco and Dennis Orcollo pulled off close wins over their respective opponents to guarantee the Southeast Asian country at least a bronze medal in the billiards competition.
The 40-year-old Kiamco edged China's Dang Jinhu 9-8 in a thrilling showdown. It was Dang who set the early pace, racing to a 5-2 lead. But Kiamco took the next two racks to come to within a point.
Dang then took the 10th rack to extend his lead to 6-4 but the Filipino won the next three racks to seize a 7-6 advantage.
The Chinese cue artist eventually tied the scores at 7-7 before Kiamco regained his lead in the next rack. Dang tied the scores again at 8-8 but the Filipino secured the win by taking the 17th and final
rack.
Making it a double celebration for Filipinos was Orcollo, who also escaped with a 9-8 win over Vietnam's Nguyen P**c Luong.
Like Kiamco, Orcollo also started slow as Nguyen built a 4-2 lead after the two players split the first four frames. The Vietnamese extended his lead to 7-3 before the former world number one regained
his composure.
Orcollo won three straight racks to close the gap to 6-7. Nguyen took the next frame to extend his lead to 8-6. But the Filipino battled back to take the next three racks and seal the win.
The twin wins thus allowed the two cue artists to remain on track for an all-Filipino final just like four years ago at the Doha Asiad. Antonio Gabica defeated Jeff de Luna in the Doha final, giving the
country its first gold of the meet.
Kiamco will next play Chinese Taipei's Ko Pin-yi, who defeated Indonesian Ricky Yang 9-6, while Orcollo will lock horns with South Korean Jeong Young-hwa, who ousted local bet Fu Jianbo 9-6.
The semi-finals and finals will be held tomorrow.
In the women's 8-ball singles quarterfinals, China's Liu Shasha edged South Korean Cha You-ram 5-4, while Taiwanese Chou Chieh-yu slipped past Japanese Akimi Kajitani on a similar score.
Joining them in the last four were South Korean Kim Ga-young and Chinese Taipei's Chang Shu-han. Kim downed Singapore's Charlene Chai 5-2 while Chang also posted a 5-2 win over Vietnamese Duong Thuy Vi.
Chou made it a double victory for the day when she also advanced to the 9-ball quarterfinals with a 7-3 win over Vietnam's Doan Thi Ngoc Le.
Tags: