BY JONAS TERRADO
DENNIS Orcollo outlasted Vietnam’s The Kien Do 9-8 Monday night to claim the men’s 10-ball singles gold in the 30th Southeast Asian Games at the Tent City of the historic Manila Hotel.
The veteran cue artist lost a pair of two-rack leads and trailed 6-5 before engaging his Vietnamese foe to a drawn out battle that forced a hill-hill affair.
But Orcollo got the best of the Vietnamese foe in the decider, prevailing in a safety battle to clean out the rack and retain the 10-ball gold which he won during its last staging in the 2013 Nay Pyi Taw Games.
It was also the first gold of Orcollo in the biennial meet, including his victories in the men’s 9-ball doubles with Alex Pagulayan in 2005, men’s 8-ball singles in 2011 and men’s 9-ball singles in 2015.
Orcollo credited his experience as a key tool in winning the hard-fought encounter.
“Mahirap talaga kasi magaling talaga siya e. Experience na lang,” he said. “Kung ano yung ginagawa ko dati at mag-antay na lang ng pagkakataon. Marami akong ginawa sa depensa kasi magaling talaga siya.”
Orcollo made his way to the finals with wins over Brunei’s Muhammad Azim Abu Bakar and Vietnam’s Quoc Hoang Duong.
The win made up for Orcollo’s early exit in the men’s 9-ball singles when he lost to Singapore’s Aloysius Yapp 9-4 in the quarterfinals earlier in the day.
Meanwhile, Jeffrey Roda settled for silver in men’s snookers after losing 4-1 to Malaysia’s Moh Keen Hoo.
Rubilen Amit and Chezka Centeno moved a win shy of ending these Games with two golds each after defeating Indonesia’s Angelie Ticoalu and Silvania Lu in the women’s 9-ball doubles semifinals.
Nine-ball champion Amit and 10-ball winner Centeno go for gold Tuesday evening against the winner of the semifinal between Indonesia’s Fathrah Masua and Nony Andilah opposite Singapore’s Tan Hui Ming and Suvene Ng Yi Huai.
