2008 WPA World Juniors Championships

by Marlon Bernardino

A gathering of 20 countries from four continents with Asia having the largest contingent, the WPA World Junior Championship broke open on December 1-4 in Sands Regency Hotel, Reno, Nevada, USA.

The Philippines fielded three players, two boys - Jerico Banares and Jonas Magpantay and a lone girl - Zemonette Oryan. All (except for Jerico) first timers in competing in a foreign country and international in nature, the Filipinos proved their mettle in the 4 day event.

Banares twice missed on the black eight during his 8-11 defeat at the hands of Taiwanese Ko Pin-yi in the finals. Breaks didn't go his way.

After picking up a win off Ko's break to level at 5-all, Banares came up empty in each of his next four breaks.

Banares miscalculated another shot on the black eight for the second time in the match on the 16th frame.

With Ko on the hill, Banares clustered two racks to pull within 8-10 and breaking. After yet another dry break, Banares got a chance to put more pressure on the defending champion as Ko failed to cover the blue two on his safety shot.

But Banares, again, couldn't get past No. 8. miscued a shot on the green six, Ko gamely cleaned up the table to retain his crown.

"Bilog talaga ang bola," said Banares. "Ayaw akong paboran sa break ngayon. Mabuti pa sa semis laging may pumapasok sa sargo ko."

His fine breaking game against Norio Ogawa of Japan in the semifinals resulted to an easy 9-4 victory.

It also avenged the 5-7 loss of Zemonette Oryan to Japanese Konischi Samia in the semifinals of the girls' division.

Oryan's defeat was also a hard pill to swallow. She was undefeated heading into the semifinals and the heavy favorite to win it all.

But she fell behind early and her missed shot on the nine-ball sealed her fate on the 12th. Samia, however, fell to Britanny Bryant of Canada, 8-9, in the finals.

Banares took home the silver medal while Oryan settled for the bronze.

Meanwhile, Jonas Magpantay ended his campaign with an 8-9 loss to Banares in the quarterfinals.