SOUTHEAST Asian Games gold medalist Johann Chua and James Aranas flew to Poland on Monday to see action in the World 9-Ball Pool Championship that starts Wednesday at the Targi Kielce Exhibition and Congress Centre in Kielce.
Chua, 30, told BusinessMirror that they will be up against 128 players from all over the world in Poland.
“It’s definitely tough tournament. We’ll be arriving there Tuesday so we only have one day to prepare,” said Chua, of Bacolod City. “All the best players are there, but I’m so motivated to win.”
The US’s Shane Van Boening will defend his crown against tough opponents that include world No. 7 Wiktor Zielinski, No. 15 Konrad Juszczyszyn and No. 16 Mieszko Fortunski.
Five Filipinos won the tournament. They are Efren “Bata” Reyes in 1999, Alex Pagulayan in 2004, Ronnie Alcano in 2006, Francisco “Django” Bustamante in 2010 and US Open champion Carlo Biado in 2017.
The champion will bag $60,000, runner-up $30,000 and the two losing semifinalists $17,500 each. The losing quarterfinalists will receive $10,000 each and those booted out from the last 16 $6,000 each.
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