MANILA, 30 August — Francisco "Django" Bustamante won Gabriel’s Las Vegas Invitational 9-ball championship, closing out his pre-Asian Games tour of the US pro pool circuit with pal Efren "Bata" Reyes with a harvest of three titles and $67,000 between the two of them.
Bustamante defeated former European champion Ralf Souquet of Germany in straight sets (5-3, 5-2, 5-4) in the finals to win the title and $7,000 prize after disposing of former US Open Champion Rodney Morris 2-1 (5-3, 3-5, 5-3) in best-of-5, race-to-5 matches.
Souquet advanced to the finals by beating Allen Hopkins 3-0 in the semis.
Bustamante won the Coliseum Mall Peninsula 9-Ball Open and $10,000 prize in Virginia last Aug. 11, while Reyes won the $50,000 winner-take-all International Challenge of Champions in Connecticut last Aug. 15.
With Bustamante’s win in Nevada, the tandem wound up their two-week US tour with a Django-Reyes-Django string of victories.
The Las Vegas Invitational was Bustamante’s fourth title this year. He won the Japan Open in Tokyo in March, the IBC World Tour in Munich in June and the Motolite World 9-Ball Challenge in the Philippines last June.
Bustamante also placed second in the 2002 World Pool Championship in Cardiff, Wales, last July, losing to Earl Strickland in the finals.
Golez strikes boxing gold
Middleweight Maraon Golez gave the Philippines its lone gold medal with a decisive win over his Korean rival at the close of the Pyongyang International boxing invitational tournament, the first international boxing event held in Pyongyang, North Korea.
Golez, a 21-year-old prized find from Cebu and an army man, claimed the breakthrough win for the Team Caltex Philippines, as he showed spunk and skill over outclassed Korean Kim Sun Kil to post a 12-6 decision over four rounds.
Golez fashioned out the only abbreviated contest in the meet when he stopped Korean No. 2 O Yong Su in the semifinals.
Golez’s win erased the stigma of a bitter loss suffered by teammate light flyweight Harry Tanamor to the host team’s No. 1 Kim Chol Ban after he failed to warm up for the fight due to the late arrival of the team shuttle bus.
The bus arrived with only two minutes to go before the Filipino’s final bout, giving Tanamor little time to sweat it out and prime up for the fight.
The result was disastrous as Tanamor used the first two rounds as his warm-up and by the time he got his game going in the third round, the Korean was unassailably ahead, 11-5. Tanamor rallied but the best he could do was trim the deficit to 15-18 at the end of the fight to settle for the silver medal.
National archer hurt in road accident
National archer Adelinda Figueroa was hurt in a three-vehicle accident while on her way to the PSC archery range in UP Diliman.
The 19-year-old Figueroa, who became a member of the national team in 1997, had both her legs pinned by a passenger jeep while alighting from the jeep she was riding.
It was learned that the jeep behind the vehicle she was riding was bumped by a bus.
According to archery association official Ligaya Manalang, Figueroa was taken to the nearby New Era Hospital by kind-hearted members of the Iglesia ni Kristo after the drivers of both jeep and the bus left the young archer to fend for herself.
Manalang said Figueroa was released from the New Era Hospital last Sunday and will be brought anytime this week to the Philippine General Hospital for further examinations.
Figueroa was a member of the team that won the gold medal in the 1997 Jakarta SEA Games. The following year, she won in the US national championships and her team finished fourth in the Bangkok Asian Games. Last year, her team also placed fourth in the Kuala Lumpur SEA Games.
Figueroa is an alternate to Asian Games — bound Purita Joy Marino, who is fast recovering from a shoulder injury. Marino has been undergoing therapy at the Philippine Center for Sports Medicine since June.
POC to shoulder expenses of RP clouters
The Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) will shoulder much of the national baseball team’s expenses for the 14th Asian Games, dousing cold water on accusations government will be forced to spend for a team that many feel is not a potential in Busan.
The POC, according to officials of the Asian Games Task Force, will take care of the air fare and accommodation of the 23-member baseball team — 19 players and four coaches, managers and officials — during the Sept. 29 to Oct. 14 games.
Also, the POC will shoulder the air fare and accommodation of each of the athlete from squash, badminton, lawn tennis and table tennis, all of whom could not pass the Task Force criteria for inclusion to the delegation but are potentials for future international competitions.
The athletes from the four sports are required to be no older than 22 though, a scheme the POC hinged on producing potentials for future competitions, specifically the 2005 Southeast Asian Games the country is hosting.
Under the arrangement, government funds will only be spent for uniforms — parade and competition — and equipment of athletes from baseball and the four other sports.
Libel case vs. Puyat dismissed
Two-time FIBA (International Basketball Federation) president Gonzalo "Lito" Puyat II has scored a personal triumph when the libel complaint filed against him by ABC (Asian Basketball Confederation) head Carl Men Ky Ching was recently dismissed by the Makati City prosecution office.
Ching, represented by lawyer Bonifacio Alentajan, based his complaint on a letter sent by Puyat to FIBA-Oceania president Alistair Ramsey and other FIBA Central Board members on March 8, 2002, claiming (Puyat’s) letter was motivated by malice, ill-will and evident bad faith.
But in a two-page resolution penned by Prosecutor Alexander G. Bagaoisan and approved by Senior State Prosecutor Leo B. Dacera III on July 22, 2002, the complaint was dismissed because the elements of "publication and malice" have not been established.
According to the resolution, "the Philippine Courts don’t have jurisdiction in Australia where the letter was sent, (it) does not appear to be libelous and that respondent (Puyat) wrote (it) out of his moral and social duty to FIBA of which he is currently honorary president, not to mention that he previously served as president for eight years."
The resolution also stressed: "As correctly pointed out by (Puyat), the subject letter qualifies as a privileged communication under Article 384 of the Revised Penal Code."
"This proves that as long as you tell the truth, you have nothing to fear because our justice system works," Puyat said of the libel suit’s dismissal.
In his letter, Puyat alleged that Ching, who is reportedly seeking the FIBA presidency, "is the biggest threat to the stability of the FIBA."
"He is president of ABC but his alleged links to the HK Triad have led to his banning from two important international events - the World Basketball Championships in Toronto, Canada in 1994 and the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney," Puyat wrote. "Now Ching wants to be the next FIBA president. What an embarrassment it would be to the international basketball community if he’s again banned from the 2004 Olympic Games (in Athens, Greece)."
Judokas bag 2 golds in Vietnam
The Philippines won two golds, four silvers and five bronzes to place second overall in the 2002 seventh ASEAN Judo championship held at the Phan Dinh Phung Indoor stadium in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Franco Teves ruled the minus 55 kilograms, while Asian Games- bound Aisa Marie Ano captured the minus 78 kilograms to highlight the Philippines’ decent showing in the seven-nation tourney.
The silver medal winners were Samson Bernales (-66 kg), Esty Gay Liwanen (-63 kg), Karen Ann Solomon (-70 kg), and Khamila Rosales (+78 kg).
The bronze medalists were Gilbert Ramirez (-73 kg), Helen Dawa (-48 kg, and Rezil Rosajelos (-48 kg).
Teves, Bernales, Dawa and Liwanen each won bronze in the male and female divisions in kata competition.
Dawa also won gold in the same weight division in the 14-nation second HTV Cup of the 10th Vietnam international judo championships.
