By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
After 10 long years, the Philippines are once again kings of the World Cup of Pool.
The duo of Johann Chua and James Aranas defied the odds during the prestigious international pool tournament and outdueled Germany during the grand finals, 11-7, held at the Pazo de Feiras e Congresos de Lugo in Spain last July 3, 2023.
Chua and Aranas brought back the country’s lost glory in the World Cup of Pool stage after failing to win a single title since Dennis Orcullo and Lee Vann Corteza’s title run during the 2013 edition of the competition.
It was a rough start for the PHL duo after trailing by 1-2 but had a chance to reverse the outcome to 2-0 if Aranas didn’t miss the last ball during the second rack.
Fortunately, the tandem quickly moved forward from the first major drama of the championship match and bounced back in the next six racks.
Chua and Aranas were eager to stomp over the Germans and scored a momentum-boosting 8-0 rally to clinch a 9-2 lead.
As the Filipinos moved a win away from raising the golden trophy, the Germans had other plans and woke up in the most important stretch of their comeback.
Germany played a more tactical approach and lured the Filipinos into a high-level defensive battle which turned out to be effective, helping them counter back with a 5-0 run to trim their deficit to just 7-9.
Sensing the Germans were shifting gears every rack, the Filipinos regained their composure and went back to their laser-focus mode at the start of the last set.
After Chua converted a jaw-dropping shot to put the seventh ball in the left pocket, everything just fell the PHL’s way as the duo perfectly set up their cue balls in the eighth and ninth balls.
It was Chua who was tasked to sink in the final ninth-winning ball which he did calmly in front of a tense venue at the Pazo de Feiras.
Before Orcullo, Cortza, Chua, and Aranas, the first two Filipinos to win in the World Cup of Pool were Efren “Bata” Reyes last 2006 and Francisco “Django” Bustamante way back in 2009.
