Taiwanese Dominate World Pool Qualifiers

Taiwanese players continue to dominate the 2007 World Pool Championship qualifiers winning three of the four events so far and serving notice that they will be a force to reckon with when the championship gets underway at the Araneta Coliseum on Saturday.

Meantime, the Filipinos striving to add to the roster of thirteen players who are in the main draw, have failed to make a dent and continue to struggle in their quest to qualify.

Taiwanese teenagers, 18 year old Pin-yi Ko and Yu-Iun Wu won Qualifiers 3 and 4 at the Star Billiards Center and what was significant is that the two events saw all-Taiwanese finals.

Ko beat Hsun-cheng Lu 9-7 while three-time world junior champion Wu showed he was ready for the big-time with a cool and calculating 9-8 win in a hill-hill battle against Ching-ju Chien.

Although the Filipinos faltered they at least fared slightly better as Roberto Gomez and Ruel Esquillo made it to the semi finals. However, Gomez was beaten by Ko 7-5 and Esquillo was ousted by Lu 7-6 in event No. 3. It was the same story in the fourth qualifier as Warren Kiamco lost in the semi finals to Chien 7-4 and Dondon Ranzalan was edged by Wu 7-6.

Both Wu and Ko finished first and second in the World Junior Pool Championships in Sydney, Australia last year. Wu moves into Group 15 and will play American veteran Johnny “The Scorpion” Archer in his first match. Ko who is nicknamed “The Prince of Pool” in Taiwan entered Group 5 of the main event and will face 2003 World Pool Champion Thorsten Hohmann of Germany in his opening match.