INQUIRER Sports

Filipinos Ramil ?Bebeng? Gallego, Lee Vann ?The Slayer? Corteza, Roberto ?Pinoy Superman? Gomez, Marlon ?Marvelous? Manalo and Jose ?Amang? Parica continued with their solid run yesterday but Cebuano Warren ?Warrior? Kiamco and Al Lapena were not as lucky after losing in the third round of the 34th Annual US Open 9-Ball Championship held at the Chesapeake Conference Center in Chesapeake, Virginia.

The Japan-based Gallego, who hails from Bacolod City, demolished Ambrosio Almoite, 11-5, to face Jeremy Sossei in the fourth round of the winners? brackets. Almoite clobbered Tony Crosby, 11-7 in their third round encounter.

Corteza, the pride of Davao City defeated Stephan Folan, 11-1. In the next round, he will meet Yukio Akagariyama, who crushed Adam Smith, 11-6.

Gomez from Divisoria, Zamboanga, subdued Joey Korsiak, 11-8 to next face Kim Davenport, who also posted a similar, 11-8 victory over Shawn Putnam.

The Mandaluyong City ace Manalo, meanwhile, routed Mike Badsteubner, 11-5, to meet Demetrius Jelatis, an 11-8 winner over Eric Moore while Parica, the leader of the Filipino invasion of the US pool circuit in the mid 80?s, edged Indon Ricky Yang, 11-10. Parica will test the mettle of Shane Van Boening, who dumped Jason Kirkwood, 11-7.

Kiamco, who hails from Pasil, Cebu succumbed to Scott Higgins, 10-11, while US based Lapena yielded to Imran Majid, 7-11.

The loss dropped Kiamco and Lapena to the losers? brackets where they are joined by former WPA 9-ball and 8-ball champion Ronato ?Volcano? Alcano in the this double elimination format event which offers $100,000 to the champion.

Alcano suffered his first setback at the hands of Tomoo Takano, 11-6, the other day. Takano proved his win over Alcano is no fluke when he beat Mike Wong, 11-4, yesterday in the winner?s side.