Philippines post one-two finish in Asiad 9-ball
Dennis Orcollo beat Warren Kiamco in an all-Filipino final in the men's 9-ball competition in the 2010 Asian Games on Thursday 18 November.
The former world No 1 posted a 9-7 victory to give the Philippines its second gold medal of the quadrennial multi-sport meet.
Orcollo, nicknamed Robocop, took the first three frames to set the early pace. But the 40-year-old Kiamco, who won a silver in the same event at the 2002 Busan Games, roared back to take the next five
racks and build a 5-3 advantage.
The Surigao native then won back-to-back racks to tie the scores at 5-5. Kiamco again regained his momentum to go up 7-5. But Orcollo refused to give in to his more experienced compatriot. The 31-year-old
swept the last four racks to secure the victory.
Orcollo won his country's second gold medal in Guangzhou after Biboy Rivera topped the men's singles event in bowling on Monday.
Kiamco, on the other hand, won the Philippines' first silver medal of the competition. The Southeast Asian country has also won four bronze medals - two in dancesport and one each in wushu and bowling.
The feat of Orcollo and Kiamco extended the country's domination of the 9-ball pool event in the Asian Games. Four years ago at the Doha Asiad, Antonio Gabica defeated Jeff de Luna to win gold.
Orcollo and Kiamco guaranteed the Philippines a gold when they hurdled their semi-final assignments earlier in the day.
Orcollo crushed veteran Jeong Young-hwa of South Korea 9-3 while Kiamco ousted Chinese Taipei’s Ko Pin-yi 9-7. Jeong and Ko shared the bronze medals.
Their one-two finish somehow made up for the ouster of their team-mates in the women's 9-ball and men's snooker singles events.
Iris Rañola kissed her medal hopes goodbye in the women's 9-ball singles after she was whitewashed by China's Fu Xiaofang 0-7 in the quarterfinals.
In the snooker singles preliminaries, Marco Fu of Hong Kong downed Marlon Manalo 4-1 while Salih Mohammad Khan of Afghanistan nipped Benjamin Guevarra 4-3.
The women's 8-ball final was also played on Wednesday. China's Liu Shasha edged South Korean Kim Ga-young 5-4 to win the gold medal.
Kim raced to a 3-1 lead but Liu came back to tie the scores at 3-3. The South Korean regained her lead in the next rack but Liu took the next two frames to seal the win.
Liu advanced to the final by beating Chinese Taipei’s Chang Shu-han 5-3 earlier in the day. Kim, meanwhile, eliminated another Taiwanese Chou Chieh-yu 5-2.
Tags: