VILLAR CUP RIGHT ON TARGET

Another veteran may have won the crown, but the recent leg of The Manny Villar Cup showed that it is slowly achieving its main goal – to develop more young local talents into world-class cue artists.

“I’m very happy to see the emergence of some young players as it shows that we are achieving our main objective in putting up this Villar Cup, which is to develop more world-class pool players and continue our dominance in the sport,” said Senator Manny Villar, the new godfather of Philippine billiards.

The just-concluded Baguio-Panagbenga leg of the prestigious island-hopping series had more than a couple of budding pool upstarts, who scored monumental victories over their highly-regarded foes.

Villar, in particular, cited the feat of 19-year-old Rene Mar David, who stunned everyone by upending no less than the sport’s living legend Efren “Bata” Reyes in the second round of that Baguio stop.

David, a native of Candon, Ilocos Sur, went on to finish second runner-up losing a tightly-contested semifinals match to eventual champion Francisco “Django” Bustamante.

“As I’ve been saying, the biggest reason for putting up this Villar Cup is to help develop the sport, where we Filipinos are on top of the world,” added Villar.

“Secondary na d’yan ‘yung makapagbigay tayo ng kasiyahan sa mga kababayan natin sa pamamagitan ng pagbibigay sa kanila ng pagkakataong mapanood ng personal ang ating magagaling na bilyarista, at ang mahikayat ang ating mga kabataan na pumasok sa sports.”

Besides David, another player who had a coming out performance in Baguio was Jordan Legaspi, a 19-year-old aspirant from Marilao, Bulacan, who shocked veteran internationalist and former Villar Cup leg winner Ramil Gallego right in the opening round, and then pushed Bustamante to the limit before yielding up in the Last16.

The Manny Villar Cup already had six stops in Alabang, Cebu, Bulacan, Davao , Bacolod and Baguio with each having different winners, underscoring the toughness of the competition among the cream of Philippine billiards crop along with a bunch of aspiring players.

The series will have its next stop in Quezon (Lucena City)

by: press release