Alcano settles for 2nd place
Japanese Yukio Akakariyama scuttled Ronato Alcano’s bid for a third world crown when he out-steadied the Filipino, 13-11 Saturday night in their pulse-stopping finals duel of the 2011 World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA) World 9-Ball Championship at the Al Sadd Sports Club in Doha, Qatar.
The victory installed Akakariyama as only the third Japanese to ever win a world billiards crown after Takeshi Okumura (1994 Chicago, USA) and Kunihiko Takahashi (1998 Taipei, Taiwan).
Akakariyama collected $36,000 from the $250,000 total purse in the WPA-sanctioned tournament. Last May, Akakariyama reached the semifinals of the World Ten Ball Championships in Manila, losing to eventual champion Huidjie See of the Netherlands, 9-6.
Ranked No. 2 in the world, Alcano earned his slot in the finals by edging countryman Dennis “Robocop” Orcollo, 11-9 in an all Filipino semifinal while Akakariyama nipped England’s Mark Gray, 11-10 in their semis duel.
Alcano, who won the 2007 WPA World 8-ball crown in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates and the 2006 WPA World 9-ball title in Manila, received the runner-up prize of $18,000 while losing semifinalists Orcollo and Gray got $10,000 each.
The loss prevented Alcano from joining the list of 9-ball double winners including Johnny “The Scorpion” Archer of the USA (1992 Taipei, Taiwan and 1997 Chicao, USA) and Chao Fong-pang of Chinese-Taipei (Konigswinter, Germany 1993 and Alicante, Spain 2000.
American Earl “The Pearl” Strickland holds the record of most world 9-ball titles with three after winning in 1990 in Bergheim, Germany; 1991 in Las Vegas, USA; and in 2002 in Cardiff, Wales.
Other Filipino WPA World 9-ball champions are Efren “Bata” Reyes (1999 Cardiff, Wales, UK); Alex “The Lion” Pagulayan (2004 Taipei, Taiwan) and Francisco “Django” Bustamante who won last year in Doha, Qatar.
