Three Colombians in the last four at Panamericans

MEXICO CITY - The Pan American championship, in which the continental title is at stake, will be decided in in a final with four players in Mexico City today: the Colombians Robinson Morales, José Juan Garcia and Pedro González and Peruvian Guido Saco. The semi-finals, Morales-Garcia and González-Saco are at 10.00, Mexican time (17.00 West Europe), the final at 19.00 broadcast live by Kozoom. Pedro Piedrabuena, the defending champion, was eliminated by Erick Tellez from Costa Rica in the 16th finals: 40-31 in 31 innings.

Among the last sixteen were six Mexicans, five Colombians, two Americans, one Costa Rican, one Ecuadorian and one Peruvian. The tournament is played at the Club CID Billarin in Mexico City. The top eight players of the tournament have qualified for the World championship in Caïro, Egypt. The last five winners of the Panamericans were Pedro Piedrabuena, (USA, 2017), Hugo Patiño (USA, 2016), Huberney Cataño (Colombia, 2015), Henry Díaz (Colombia, 2014) and Pedro Piedrabuena (USA, 2013). Piedrabuena and Mexican Rodolfo Covarrubias won the tournament three times, Alexander Salazar and Luis Aveiga twice.

Jose Juan Garcia, the former junior world champion, was the best winner in the quarterfinals. The young Colombian bested his seasoned countryman Alexander Salazar, thanks a run of 12, 40-30 in 29 innings. Pedro González defeated his compatriot Julian Morales 40-26 in 30, Robinson Morales outplayed the last Mexican, Juan Patiño, 40-29 in 36. Guido Saco beat Erick Tellez 40-36 in 32 innings.

Pedro Piedrabuena was on top of the ranking of the last sixteen for the main tournament. The American defending champion played his best match against Giovanni Moreno, whom he won 30-15 in 14 innings. The Mexican Miguel Almaz shone with a match of 2.222 average. Raymundo Muñoz signed for the highest run so far: 13. Piedrabuena was followed by Robinson Morales 1.636, Alexander Salazar 1.525, Luis Aveiga 1.451, Pedro Gonzalez 1.406 and José Juan Garcia 1.267.

The other players for the knock-out were Huberney Catano, Javier Teran, Guido Saco, Juan Patino, Javier Vera, Raymundo Munoz, Luis Miguel Avila, Miguel Almaraz, Rodolfo Covarrubias and Julian Patino. Among the players who didn't qualify were Henry Diaz, Erick Tellez, Julian Moralez, Andres Lizarazo, Hugo Patino, Ramon Rodriguez and Cristopher Tevez.

The field of participants consisted of players from Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Panama, Peru, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, the US, Uruguay and Venezuela.