We have reason to be proud again

By Alex P. Vidal

“A game is great, in my view, only if it can be played happily by a sane person of at least average intelligence for several hours a day for fifty years. Both pool and billiards qualify.”— Robert Byrne

NOT all news about the Philippines are depressing after all.

Amid the “Love the Philippines” video advertisement fiasco and the almost non-stop harassment of Philippine ships by the Chinese Coast Guard in the West Philippine Sea, among other recent negative stories, two unknown billiards players brought back the Philippines to the world map when they captured the 2023 World Cup of Pool at Pazo de Feiras e Congresos de Lugo, Spain.

Johann Chua and James Aranas, simply spectacular, made history for the Philippines by becoming the first nation to ever win the title on four separate occasions.

Chua and Aranas trounced Germany’s Joshua Filler and Moritz Neuhausen, 11-7, in the final held Sunday (US time).

The talented Filipino duo, unheralded before this shocking triumph, leaned on a string of eight consecutive rack victories before preventing another near-collapse to secure the country’s first title in the annual 9-ball team event since Dennis Orcollo and Lee Van Corteza’s triumph in 2013.

News of this king-sized Philippine victory in the world pool table almost immediately restored our pride after stinging negative stories about our country dominated the media over the weekend.

We thought with the decline of Bata Reyes and Django Bustamante, we would no longer shine in the sports that made us great outside the Olympic Games many years back.

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Earlier in the semis there were fears the Filipinos would be spoiled to pocket the record-breaking fourth crown by Austria’s Mario He and Albin Ouschan who were also looking for their own piece of history as the first scotch doubles pairing to ever win the World Cup of Pool three times in the tournament held in partnership with The Asociación Gallega de Billar Pool (AGP), Xunta de Galicia, and EIDF Solar live on Sky Sports in the UK and Ireland, DAZN in Spain, the USA, Italy, and Brazil, Viaplay in Scandinavia, the Baltics and Poland, TAP Go in the Philippines and Matchroom.Live and DAZN in Germany and broadcasters worldwide.

But the Pinoy pride defied the odds once more and the rest now is history.

Despite coming into the 32-team tournament unseeded, Chua and Aranas took home the top purse of $60,000 (P3.32 million)

They made a noise earlier by defeating last year’s winners Francisco Sanchez Ruiz and David Alcaide, 7-5, of host Spain before defeating another duo from the host country in Jonas Souto and Jose Alberto Delgado, 7-2.

That set up an anxious windup to the crown as the Filipino underdogs defeated Chinese-Taipei’s Ko Pin-Yi and Ko Pin-Chung and Austria’s Albin Ouschan and Mario He by similar 9-8 scores in the quarterfinals and semifinals despite squandering huge leads in both matches.

Chua and Aranas completed their run towards history as they buck some early jitters and a 2-1 deficit to take control of the race-to-11 final with a commanding 9-2 advantage.

The big news in the pool table is expected to give the Philippines another renaissance in the world of billiards after we rested from our laurels for a while with the exit from billiards of Reyes, Bustamante, et al.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two daily newspapers in Iloilo.—Ed)