BACOLOD CITY -- Former Guinness world champion Jundel Mazon won the ‘1st Mayor Albee Benitez MassKara Billiards Tournament’ here on Thursday, Oct. 6.
Mazon, who is from Cavite, took home the grand prize amounting to P350,000, after defeating Bacolod’s pride, Johann Chua, on the final day of the tournament.
The tournament started on Oct. 2 with 128 players that included the legends and world champions Efren ‘Bata’ Reyes and Francisco ‘Django’ Bustamante, among others.
They brought in the crowd and though they dominated the early matches, Reyes was crushed by newbie, 15-year-old AJ Manas from Antipolo, on the fourth day of the tournament.
Manas also defeated national team player, Warren Kiamco in the best of 32 to advance to the quarterfinals. But, Manas’s journey was halted by Mazon, with an 8-7 victory.
Bustamante defeated Jerico Banares to set up a faceoff with Chua, who eliminated 17-year-old Jolo Aspuria in the Final Four.
Chua played against his national team coach, and took on the lead immediately when Bustamante gave away the fourth set after he failed to land the seventh ball in giving the younger player a lead of 3-1.
But, while Bustamante came back strong to clinch the fifth set, he never recovered from his misses after Chua played strong and calculated, romping off the succeeding sets easily and finishing off the race to 9 with a final score of 9-2.
Meanwhile, Mazon and Rodrigo Geronimo played against each other after defeating Bonnie Penticase and Dean Mark Castronuevo, respectively.
Geronimo started off tight with a score of 1 each and in the eighth set, they were still tied at 4-4 but eventually, Mazon went on to win the race to face off with Chua in the finals.
As soon as the final games started, Mazon showed dominance by immediately taking in the first five sets.
Chua regained his bearings by taking the sixth set and went off to win a few more sets. However, in the end, 46-year-old Mazon took home the bacon with the final score of 9-5. Chua received P100,000.
Third and fourth placers got P50,000 each, while the fifth to the eight place got P15,000 each.
The tournament was part of the celebration of the 43rd MassKara Festival here.