RONATO "VOLCANO" ALCANO, the current WPA 9-ball and WPA 8-ball champion, will have tough workouts heading to his title defense in November.
"BSCP is fully supporting this program, i know all the players are very excited in this event and we thank Raya Sports and ABC 5 for that." Said Billiards and Snooker Congress of the Philippines (BSCP) president Ernie Fajardo to the local media in a luncheon meeting held Wednesday at the Sofitel Plaza in Manila, hosted by Raya Sports president Yen Makabenta and officials from ABC 5.
The 34-year-old lanky cue artist from Calamba, Laguna heads a star-studded cast of Pool Showdown, a new sports program made for television that will have its premiere on Sept. 18.
Joining him are world-beaters Lee Vann Corteza, Dennis Orcollo, Antonio Gabica, Joven Bustamante and Warren Kiamco. All of them have been making waves in the international scene recently.
Corteza is the reigning National Champion and recently won the Turning Stone 9-ball in Verona, New York, while Orcollo is the BCA Enjoy Pool champion, Gabica was a 9-ball gold medalist in last year's Asian Games and also the silver medalist in the 8-ball competition, Bustamante topped the Korea Open, and Kiamco pocketed the US Bar Table 9-ball and 8-ball championships.
There are also foreign players who have signified their intent to play.
Among them are former world champions Mika Immonen of Finland and Wu Chia-Ching of Taiwan, Predator 10-ball champion Shane Van Boening, former US Open winner Rodney Morris, top-ranked American Max Eberle, UK champ Darren Appleton and Singapore champ Kweng Kang.
The Pool Showdown, a co-production of ABC Sports and Raya, will be shown live on prime time on Tuesdays and Saturdays from 7 to 9 p.m.
Three game formats will be featured in Pool Showdown, the 8-ball, 9-ball and 10-ball. Two pools of six players each will play a race-to-10 ring game in the inaugural show. The winners of the ring games will go to the Match of the Week on the first Saturday of the show with the winner becoming a hot seat player.
In the succeeding weeks, one ring game will be played on Tuesday to determine the challenger to the hot seat player. The last man standing in the grand final in December will be declared champion and bag the top prize of US$12,000.
(Report from MARLON BERNARDINO)
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