RUBILEN AMIT TO COMPETE IN 2010 AMWAY WPA WOMEN’S WORLD 9-BALL

REIGNING Women’s World 10-ball champion Rubilen “Bingkay” Amit left the country yesterday (Tuesday) aboard Philippine Airlines (PAL) to compete in the 2010 AMWAY WPA Women’s World 9-Ball Open slated on March 4 to 7 at the Core Pacific Living Mall Hotel in Taipei, Taiwan.

“I hope to do well in this event,” said the Cebuana native Amit, one of the top players of sportsman-businessman Aristeo “Putch” Puyat of Puyat Sports, who feted Athlete of the Year together with long jumper Marestella Torres and taekwondo jins Camille Alarilla, Janice Lagman and Rani Ann Ortega of the Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) during the Annual Awards Night last Monday at the Centennial Hall of the Manila Hotel.

Amit’s impressive run in the 2007 Amway WPA Women’s World 9-Ball championship ended in a runner-up finish losing to eventual champion Xiao-Ting Pan of China, 11-5, in the title round held at the Taipei Gymnasium in Tao-Yuan, Taiwan.

The Filipino’s failure to bag the title, however, mirrored not her tenacity in bagging the second place spot worth $10,000.

Amit was considered as the tournament’s giant killer as she eliminated Allison “the Duchess of Doom” Fisher of Great Britain, who is considered as the Efren “Bata” Reyes of women’s pool, in the group stage then went on to defeat back-to-back defending champion Ga young Kim of Korea and Yukiko Hamanishi of Japan on her route to the finals.

According to his coach Boyet Asonto,  Amit “came just short with the loss to Pan in the finals.”

2009 Great Year for Rubilen

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The World women’s No.10 Amit captured the first ever JBET Poker.net Women’s World 10 –Ball championship on a thrilling finals match by beating Liu Shin Min Liu of Taiwan to secure the victory at the Sky Dome at SM North Edsa in Quezon City last June.

The Filipina pocketed the $20,000 top purse and the honor of being the first Women’s World 10-Ball champion.

Amit also teamed up with pool maestro and Puyat Sports stable mate Efren “Bata” Reyes to capture the 1st Mixed Doubles Classic championships last November then winning two gold medals in the recently concluded Southeast Asian Games in Laos last December.

Previous AMWAY WPA Women’s World 9-Ball Open champions Pan, Kim, Fisher, Karen Corr of Ireland, Chou Chieh-Yu and Chang Shu-han of Taiwan also invited to play in the tournament proper.

Other notable women’s players will seeing in action are Kelly Fisher of Great Britain, Jasmin Ouschan and Gerda Hofstatter of Austria, Akimi Kajatani of Japan, Liu Sha Shan of China and You Ram Cha of Korea.

Not to be outdone are Lim Yun-Min of Korea, Kahawara Chihiro of Japan, Tsai Pei –Chen, Liu-Shin Mei, Lin Yuan Chun, Lin Hsiao Chi and Tan Ho Yun of the host country.

Group stage is divided into eight groups with six players in each group. The format call is round-robin format using the race-to-7 affair.

The last 24 will be employs the single elimination format, race-to-7 affair. The semi-finals will be race-to-9 while the final is race-to-11. Winner’s break format will be apply.

BY: MARLON BERNARDINO