Amit saved touted billiards team from SEAG disaster

The star-studded billiards team owes it to lady cue artist Rubilen Amit who prevented what could have been a disastrous performance for such a touted crew in the just-concluded 25th Southeast Asian Games in Vientiane, Laos. Amit emerged as the savior for the team populated by world-rated players like Efren "Bata" Reyes, Francisco "Django" Bustamante, Ronato Alcano, Dennis Orcollo and Ramil Gallego, capturing two gold medals to push the Philippines to the overall title in the sport. The RP cue masters grabbed a total of three golds, a silver and two bronze medals in Laos.

After pocketing the 8-ball singles mint, Amit, better known as Bingkay in the pool world, completed a sweep of the pool events with a 7-3 victory over Charlene Tsai of Singapore in the 9-ball finals. Alcano was the third gold medalist for the delegation, defeating compatriot Gandy Valle in the 8-ball event. Vietnam actually matched the three-gold, one-silver output of the Filipinos, but the Vietnamese failed to win a bronze to settle for second place overall. "Amit was unbelievable here. Bihira talaga yung ginawa niya," said Arturo Ilagan, one of the claimants to the Billiards and Snooker Congress of the Philippines (BSCP) presidency. Amit's perseverance offset the sorry losses in the men's 9-ball events, as highlighted by the medal-less stint of reigning World Cup of Pool champions Reyes and Bustamante after losing to Thai pair Nitiwat Kanjanasri and Surathep Phoochalam in the quarterfinal round, 7-4. Reports have it that Reyes was unhappy he was not fielded in the 9-ball singles, an event that saw the country also missing the gold as Dennis Orcollo could only snag a bronze medal. "We have so many players that we have to field them also in other events. I don't think the report is accurate since everybody here is helping one another. Even Efren is giving Amit the pointers she needed to win her two events," explained Ilagan. These are all water under the bridge now, Ilagan said, noting that the important thing was the fact that the country emerged as the overall champion in this discipline. "How can they say it’s a debacle here (SEA Games billiards and snooker competitions) when we are the overall champion?" Ilagan said. Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) president Jose Cojuangco Jr. sided with the pool players and asked critics to stop accusing the professional players of not giving their best in the games that stake medals instead of huge prize money. "Talagang ganyan. Naunahan sila at hindi nakuha ang break. Kasama sa laro iyan," said Cojuangco. "Besides this is only one of the many competitions they competed in and they have given the country many titles in past competitions. So to accuse them of anything is uncalled for," added the POC chief. - GMANews.TV