Carom
LAS VEGAS - Ten players are competing for the American championship in the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas these days. Pedro Piedrabuena is unbeaten after five sessions of nine with an average of 1.471 and a highest run of 11. His main competitor is Hugo Patino with eight match points.
The championship started with 42 players, who were divided into six groups. In the second round twenty players were divided into four groups. Ten players qualified for the final. Hugo Patino, Miguel Torres, Martin Shoony and the current champion Jae Hyung Cho were unbeaten in the preliminaries.
The final stage is played to 35 caroms, all players meat each other on the six new Gabriels Imperators. The Tropicana Hotel Las Vegas is known as the billiard place where the Spaniard Avelino Rico for only one time grabbed the world title in 1986 in the era that Raymond Ceulemans ruled as the great champion.
The ranking in the final group of the American championship after five rounds:
1 Pedro Piedrabuena 5-10-1.471, 2 Hugo Patino 5-8-1.031, 3 Miguel Torres 5-6-1.411, 4,5,6 Jao Hyung Cho, Mazin Shooni and Frank Torres 5-6, 7 Adrian Viguera 5-2, 9,10 Thanh Vu and Khalil Diab 5-0.