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RENO, NEVADA: Jerico Bañares and Zemonette
Oryan, the country’s best hopes of scoring a breakthrough win in
the World Junior Pool Championship, dominated separate rivals on
Tuesday to land a spot in the knockout stage of the under-19
tournament at Sands Regency Hotel here.
Bañares toyed with Japanese
Kihara Hirotaka, 9-2, to advance in the quarterfinals of the boys
division while Oryan outclassed Briana Miller of the United States,
7-3, to clinch a semifinal seat in the girls division.
The tournament format turns from
double-elimination to knockout in the quarterfinals for the boys and
semifinals for the girls. The top four players from the winner’s
bracket would be pitted against the last four players standing from
the loser’s side in the boys while the top two players from the
winner’s bracket would go up against the last two from the
loser’s side in the girls.
Jonas Magpantay, the other
Filipino in the field, kept his bid alive by beating American Billy
Thorpe, 9-5.
Magpantay was relegated to the
loser’s bracket following his heartbreaking 8-9 loss to Chiang
Chieh-an of Chinese Taipei on Monday night.
He would next face
Filipino-Canadian McEarl Bucais, who eliminated Kenneth Ang-Eng-Soon
of Singapore, 9-5. The winner would shoot for a quarterfinal seat
against Nico Wehner of Germany.
The campaign of the three junior
players is supported by the Philippine Sports Commission and the
Billiards and Snooker Congress of the Philippines.
Bañares and Oryan took the
shorter route.
Both players were untouchable in
their last two games. The 19-year-old Bañares toppled Nick Pera of
New Zealand, 9-5, while Oryan, also 19, blanked Sabrina Naverschnig
of Austria, 7-0, on Monday night.
Bañares, the reigning national
junior champion, was at his best against Hirotaka. He raced to a 5-0
lead and never looked back.
“Medyo nakakapag-adjust na ako
sa oras dito,” said Bañares. “Noong first day kasi medyo
inaantok pa nung lumaban.”
Oryan, the women’s national
champion, also jumped the gun against Miller. She took 2-leads of
3-0, 4-1 and 6-2 before running out the 10th frame for the clincher.
--NOLI CRUZ
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