National junior pools tourney on

MANILA, Philippines - The third Philippine Juniors Pool Championship fires off today with the cream of the country’s young cue artists battling it out for top honors at the Star Billiards Center in Grace Village in Quezon City.

Jonas Magpantay, winner of the Pagcor-Kabayan Bilyar Aralan 9-Ball Challenge, heads the cast in the three-day event.

The 15-year-old Bansud, Oriental Mindoro native Magpantay, a freshman pupil of Ponciano Bernardo High School in Cubao is the 2009 Philippine Pool Championships youngest qualifier.

He also settled a quarterfinals finish during the 2008 Reno World Junior of Pool Championships (for boys) in Reno, Nevada.

Cebuano billiards patron/ businessman Paul “Magi” Magadan of MPC Aluminum and Glass Trading sent his three young warriors in Felix “Bulati” Carvajal, who topped the 2009 Cebu 9-Ball tournament, Diondel Cortez “Monkey” Raga and Keith Castro Manayon to carry the good fight for the Cebuano cue artists.

The event is open to all male players 19 years old and below. No entry fee is required. All interested participants, however, must submit a valid birth certificate.

The tournament offers a cash pot of P140,000. The champion will receive P50,000 and the right to represent the country in the World Junior Pool Championship slated in December.

The runner-up will get P25,000. Prizes will be given up to eighth place.

Previous winners of the Philippine Junior Pool Championship were Jerico Banares, 2008 champion who went on to place second in the world junior championship in Reno, Nevada, and Mark Aristotle Mendoza, 2007 champion who represented the country in the 2007 championship in Germany.