Life moves on for Django

BUSAN, South Korea — Like a true globe-trotting professional, Francisco "Django" Bustamante spent only a few hours celebrating his first Asian Games victory and off he went to wage another billiards battle somewhere.

The 38-year-old billiards player and his immediate family celebrated his gold medal victory with partner Antonio Lining in the nine-ball doubles with friends in his hotel and left early yesterday.

He is to take a connecting flight in Itchon for a long haul to the United States where he is to compete in a $25,000 seven-ball sudden death in Maryland. It is a new event in the pro billiards tour.

From there, he will proceed to London for the World Pool Masters championships with Bata Reyes set Oct. 15.

"Ganito pala ang pakiramdam ng manalo sa Asian Games. Malakas ang pressure dahil para sa bayan but it’s worth it," said Bustamante.

The Filipino master swept eight racks and Lining added three, including the gold medal-clinching 20th rack, to give Team Philippines its second gold halfway through the Busan Games.

They beat the Korean pair of Jeong Young-Hwa and Kim Won-Suk, 11-9, at the Dongju College gymnasium.

Bustamante is a world figure in the sport, having won major championships abroad, but he was catapulted further to prominence when he fought through the grief of losing a child at the height of the World Pool Championship in Cardiff, Wales.

He dedicated his victory here to his late seven-month-old daughter Mariel like his runner-up finish in Cardiff since the girl was reportedly his good luck charm following big finishes abroad.

In fact, he brought along his wife Mila and son Jun-jun here in Busan to further inspire him in probably a tougher battle than the megabuck matches in the pro tour–a fight for flag and nation.

"Di nabale matalo sa individual prize money, personal mo iyon, but to lose here, masakit tanggapin dahil naka-focus ang buong bayan, dahil para sa bayan ito," said Bustamante, winner of the recent Japan Open.

Starting out slow, the Filipino pair fell behind at 2-5, equalized at 5-all, and 7-all and then seized the initiative for good after 9-all on Bustamante’s businesslike clean-up of the balls on the 19th rack.

Then Lining, the pride of Calapan, Oriental Mindoro, then finished off the Koreans on his turn at break at 29th rack, knocking in the nine-ball at the right side pocket after agonizing over the shot for sometime.

"Kailangan mag-gold at inaasahan kami dito," said Lining, a father of four who had a string of victories like in the Kuala Lumpur SEA Games, Luneborg Open in Germany and open titles in Osaka, Taipei, Jakarta and Tokyo.

Bustamante was a late entry to the billiards team and was accommodated to only one event – the nine-ball doubles – because Warren Kiamco, silver medallist in the nine-ball doubles, gave way for Django’s inclusion.

That put billiards officials under fire since they kept Bustamante and Reyes, sure-fire bets for the gold, limited and difficult assignments in Busan.

The 44-year old Reyes, who owns five golds and two silvers in the SEA Games, could only show a bronze in the eight-ball singles, losing in the carom. And later complained he was not given the events he wanted.

There were allegations that coaches picked their wards since they have a share on the monetary incentives–in Bustamante and Lining’s case over P1 million – and Bustamante and Reyes belonged to a rival group but billiards officials denied this.

"We tried to avoid demoralization in the team. Whatever the initial event assignment, we stuck to it. Nothing political. Efren had asked for 8-ball, carom and English billiards right after the Kuala Lumpur SEA Games and Warren Kiamco gave his slot in the doubles to Django dahil alam nilang magaling siya," said Joaquin Perez de Tagle, secretary-general of the Billiards Congress of the Philippines.

Philippine Olympic Committee president Cito Dayrit said it was the National Sports Association (NSA) which decided on the athletes they would send and assignment events to and the Asiad task force only approved their participation.

"We heard about Bata’s complaint but as a rule, we allow the NSAs to decide since they know their athletes better. This happens everytime like in basketball when some people would question the inclusion of some players in the team," he said.