OLD THRONE RECLAIMED
An hour or so after winning the World Pool Championship for the second time in his already-decorated career, Carlo Biado was already at the airport waiting for a flight back home.
“No time for celebration,” Biado said on his Facebook page after edging out last year’s champion Fedor Gorst, 15-13, in a back-and-forth final in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Sunday morning in Manila. “My celebration is with family, [which] is my biggest trophy in life.”
Biado, 41, will have some time to reflect on not just becoming the first Filipino to capture the prestigious 9-ball event on multiple occasions, but also taking home the top purse of $250,000 (P14.29 million).
It’s a huge pot for Biado, who repeated his victory from the 2017 edition, apart from other accomplishments on the professional circuit and with the national team that included a 2024 World 10-Ball crown, three golds in the Southeast Asian Games and another in the 2017 World Games.
And it came at the expense of Gorst, the American who refused to buckle down amid a pair of big deficits in the title match at Green Halls in the Saudi capital.
Gorst, a Russian-born pool player who now represents the US, battled back from a 9-2 deficit to win seven straight racks, then made another uprising after Biado answered back to lead 13-9, highlighted by a jump shot to convert a 3-ball into the corner pocket.
The 25-year-old won four in a row to level the count at 13-all. But a dry break on the 27th rack was the opening Biado needed to clear the final two racks and end his long wait for another world 9-ball crown.
“This final is unforgettable because Fedor is one of the best players in the world and a monster on the table,” Biado told tournament organizer Matchroom Pool. “I was worried even if I was leading 9-2, but was still focused on the game, even if he came back.”
Biado pulled off what past Filipino winners Efren “Bata” Reyes, Ronnie Alcano and Francisco “Django” Bustamante failed to do during their careers.
Reyes and Bustamante won just once in 1999 and 2010, respectively, while 2006 champion Alcano was denied a second back in 2011 by Japan’s Yukio Akakariyama.
Biado’s initial bid, on the other hand, was thwarted in 2018 after losing in the final to Germany’s Joshua Filler.
Biado never lost during the five-day event in Jeddah, opening the campaign with wins over Jan Van Lierop, 9-5 and fellow Filipino Lee Van Corteza, 9-4, to breeze through the knockout stage.
He defeated Chris Melling, 11-9, and Wiktor Zielinski, 11-8, in the first two rounds before defeating another compatriot in Jeffrey Ignacio, 11-9, and Chinese-Taipei’s Ko Ping Chung, 11-7.
That put him in an intriguing semifinal meeting with another Filipino in 20-year-old Bernie Regalario, who was looking to complete the biggest win of his pool career. But Biado’s experience outclassed Regalario’s youth as he won, 11-3, that ended with Biado completing a golden break.
“That golden break [meant that] it might be my lucky day,” Biado said.
It turned out to be not just his lucky day. It was also a big payday, and his place in pool history.
