IT'S OVER!!!
England's Peach Captures World Pool Throphy
By Marlon Bernardino
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 12 Nov 2007
DARYL PEACH showed the world that England is still a force to be reckoned with in the sport of Pool especially with the hosting of the Olympic Games in 2012 in London.
The 35-year-old Blackpool England cue artists beat Filipino Roberto Gomez in a race to 17 finals last night with a cliff hanging 17-15 victory at the Big Dome. He also took home the $100,000 cash prize.
Gomez on the other hand, took home $40,000 With the win, Peach already seeded in the main draw of World Pool Championship in five straight year by winning the title while Gomez could only be seeded in the next year's edition which possibly to be hosted again by the Philippines for the third straight year.
Peach lost to Matias Ercul of Slovakia (1-9) but eliminated Rodolfo Luat of the Philippines (9-3) and Lily (9-5) in the group stage matches to progress.
Then he eliminated last year's champion Ronato Alcano of the Philippines (10-6) in the last 64, Lee Kun Fang of Taiwan (10-7) in the last 32, Harold Stolka of Germany (11-5), Francisco "Django" Bustamante (11-10) in the last 8 and Vilmos Voldes of Hungrary (11-2) in the last 4, in that order.
"Nerves, pressure but it's amazing match," said Peach, "He is a champion, it's a lot of pressure in my part," added Peach, who broke the Asian domination from Alex Pagulayan in 2004 edition, Wu Chia-Ching of Taipei in 2005 and Ronato 'The Volcano' Alcano in 2006.
Gomez, on the other hand, reached the finals by crushing Neils Feijen of the Netherlands (9-6) and Dharminder Sing Lilly of India (9-4) in their group stage matches, then beat Alex Lely of the Netherlands (10-1) in the last 64, Chao Fong-pao of Taiwan (11-4) in the last 32, rematch Feijen in the last 8, Kuo Po-cheng of Taiwan in the last 16 and Karl Boyes of England (11-4) in the last 4.
"Ito na ang pinakamataas na tournament na pangarap kong makuha," said tearful Gomez.
"Komportable ako bago magsimula pero dahil na din sa suporta ng crowd, 'yung ingay nila ay lalo akong na pressure," he added. "Kailangan kong kontrolin ang pressure," said Gomez.
The drama is in the 31st rack which Peach saw a table-length bank on the blue 2 rattle in the jaws of the bottom left pocket but stay on the cloth.
However, Gomez then missed the orange 5. As soon as he saw the ball failed to drop he stood there motionless, knowing that he could have just blown his chance to win the championship.
There was yet another further twist as Peach lost position going from the 8-ball to the 9-ball. That left a tougher shot than anticipated and he then missed a table-length bank on the 9-ball.
But the drama was not over yet. Gomez had a shot at the 9-ball, which would have looked easy for him throughout this tournament. Though this was the pressure-cooker of the World Championship final and the pressure got to him. Peach sunk the 9-ball to move to the hill, one away from glory.
I LOST MY CHALK -- GOMEZ
Roberto Gomez admitted last night that his lucky charm chalk was lost that put him in a disadvatange position.
"Nawala ko 'yung chalk na ginagamit ko, 'yung ang lucky charm ko eh," said Gomez to the local media.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Marlon Bernardino.
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