AFTER taking a backseat to weightlifting, golf, and boxing, billiards re-established its status as a gold mine for Philippine sports with Carlo Biado capturing the 2021 US Open Pool Championship and leading the march of Filipino achievers last September.
Biado, one of the top guns of the decorated Philippine pool stable that produced legends Efren “Bata” Reyes and Francisco “Django” Bustamante, ruled the prestigious 9-ball meet one memorable Saturday night in Atlantic City.
It was one comeback-for-the-ages clincher for Biado, 37, who wiped out Singaporean Aloysius Yapp’s 8-3 lead with an amazing 10-rack spree to win the race-to-13 finale by five racks.
Biado, the world 9-ball kingpin in 2017, gave the Philippines its first US Open crown since Reyes hoisted the trophy 27 years ago.
Barely 24 hours later, golfer Miguel Tabuena scored his breakthrough triumph in the United States.
The Rio Olympics veteran dished out a tour-de-force performance in the Idaho Open, logging a 14-under 196 spiked by a blistering 63 in the second round to beat American Brad Marek by four strokes in the 54-hole event.
Another Olympian, Tokyo competitor EJ Obiena, sparkled in his battlefield as he etched his name as the new Asian pole vault record-holder of all time.
Ranked No. 5 in the world, Obiena cleared 5.93 meters on his third try to seal his victory in the 17th Golden Roof Challenge in Innsbruck, Austria while obliterating the long-standing Asian mark of 5.92m Kazakhstan’s Igor Potapovich set in France back in 1992.
Obiena’s fellow campaigner in Tokyo, golf star Yuka Saso, delivered a strong showing in the LPGA as she placed fourth in the Arkansas Championship.
