Sunday, July 15, 2007

Kiamco wins, Orcollo tumbles in World Straight Pool

Warren Kiamco of the Philippines boosted his title drive in the ongoing Predator World Straight Pool Championship in East Brunswick, New Jersey, USA, by trouncing Americans Matt Tretrault, 150-85, and Bobby Hunter, 150-78. He will next face Radoslaw Babica of Poland.

Dennis Orcollo on the other hand could only split his matches and was relegated to the losers’ bracket in the round-of-32. Dennis beat Dennis Hatch of the US, 150-102, but faltered against Huidje See of the Netherlands, 150-126.

Orcollo and Kiamco are the only Filipinos in the event dubbed as World 14.1 Straight Pool Championship that features a 64-player open with round robin play.

They join an eight-group field, each composed of eight players in race-to-100 matches. Two players in each group will advance to the next round. The duo will play in a double-elimination, race-to-150 series in the round-of-32.

The 28-year old Orcollo booked himself a slot in the round-of-32 Wednesday when he beat Nick Van den Berg of the Netherlands, 100-1, and Jerry Trantola, 100-37, of the US.

The former fisherman from Bislig, Surigao del Sur of the southern Philippine region of Mindanao, also downed Stuart Mattana of the US, 100-2, but bowed to Dennis Hatch, 100-5, also of the US, to finish with a 6-1 win-loss card, the same output of Van den Berg.

Orcollo, who is aiming to duplicate his victory in the 2007 BCA Enjoypool.com in Las Vegas, Nevada, and the Bill Staton Memorial in Virginia Beach, Virginia, earlier tripped Tony Rodriguez, 100-17, and Peter Burrows, 100-21, of the US, and Craig Riley of England,100-26.

The 36-year old Kiamco, a native of Pasil, Cebu,, on the other hand, trounced Ed Deska of the US, 100-63 to join compatriot Orcollo in the next round.

Kiamco, the 2007 US Bar Table Championship 9-ball and 8-ball ruler will face American Mike Davis in the round of 64. Kiamco’s only loss so far came from Radoslaw Babica of Poland, 55-100. The two are fighting for leadership in Group 5.

Other victims of Kiamco were Max Eberle of the US, 100-70, Nico Otterman of Germany, 100-96, Danny Kuykendall, 100-11 and Joey Kong, 100-50, both of the US.

Thorsten Hohmann of Germany, the defending champion, tops Group 1 with a 7-0 win-loss slate.

Fellow German ace Thomas Engert matched Hohmann’s unbeaten record by dominating Group 8 with a similar 7-0 win-loss card after beating Martin Kempter of Austria, 100-36, in his last assignment in the round-of-64. Kempter also advanced to the next round with a 6-1 slate.

Konstantin Stepanov of Russia is also doing well in Group 3 with a 6-0 scorecard to advance to the next round. His last matches will be against Yu-Ram Cha of Korea. European top female player Jasmin Ouschan of Austria (4-2) needs to win her game against Cha to advance to the next round.

Other participants who made it to the money round were Ralf Souquet and Oliver Ortmann of Germany, Fabio Petroni of Italy, Allen Hopkins, Tony Robles and Ed Hodan of the US.

European No.1 player Niels Feijen of the Netherlands, is lording it over Group 7 with a 5-0 slate. At second place is 2006 US Open champion John Schmidt with 5-1, 2001 World 9-ball champion Mika Immonen of Finland (5-2) and Matt Terault of the US (5-2).

A total of 52 world-class players were invited to play in the tournament, while the other 12 got their slots after going through a series of qualifying tournaments that started as early as June 2.

From reports by Marlon Bernardino

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