Puyat wants young pool of billiard players

SPORTSMAN Aristeo “Putch” Puyat has been spending his time, money and efforts in helping promote sports specifically horseracing, bowling and billiards.

In assuming the billiards leadership recently, the godfather of local pool, vowed to discover a new crop of young players.

The new president of the Billiards Sports Confederation of the Philippines said the association is keen on developing a pool of players 20 years old and below to follow the footsteps of billiard greats like Hall of Famers Efren “Bata” Reyes and Francisco “Django Bustamante, Dennis Orcollo, Rubilen Amit and Irish Rañola, among others.

Said Puyat in an interview, “If we do not want to relinquish the Philippines’ hard-earned place of honor in pro pool, we should accelerate the development of new talents who could take over from Efren Bata and Amang Parica, who are both past 50, and other present stars,  who are neither getting any younger, when time comes for them to permanently sheath their cues.”

The emergence of European and Taiwanese cue artists in pro pool’s major leagues in the US is a sign that aside from Filipinos, other Asians and Europeans are already sharing the spotlight with Americans in the world of billiards.

Puyat replaced Arturo Ilagan, whose stint had been tainted with complaints from  his players.

“The constant disagreement of Mr. Ilagan with the players and the written complaints forced us to take action,” said Puyat.

Elected as vice president was Jimmy Chiongo, former North Cotabato representative Bernard Pinol became chair and Mahar Mangahas was elected secretary general.

Perry Mariano, president of the Billiards Managers and Players Association of the Philippines (BMPAP), is the secretary general for local affairs while Christine Caparras, will take care of the international dealings of the BSCP.

Philippine Olympic Committee spokesperson Joey Romasanta explained that the BSCP exercise would be recognized by the Olympic body if there’s no formal objection from another party.

“They just have to submit a full report to the POC and make sure there will be no complaints,” said Romasanta.

Deposed BSCP president Ilagan has protested the election, saying that the exercise was illegal.

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SPORTS TRIVIA. The first TV coverage of the Olympic Games was made during the Tokyo Games in 1964.

Long ago, Games were held where athletes competed in a spirit of friendship, peace and harmony. The athletes were pure of heart, noble in spirit, and true in virtue. They cared not for themselves, but only for others.

But like all fairy-tales, those halcyon days never really existed. Athletes in any age have always exhibited the same frailties as everybody else.