BOGOTÁ - The Grand Prix Americanos, that started with 160 players in Bogotá, Colombia, ended with a victory for Cesar Garzón, who defeated the Pan American champion Huberney Cataño in the final match. The tournament, organized by the Billiards club 8, was a huge success, not only with many Colombian top players, also from Panama, Costa Rica, Ecuador and the United States.
The gala night was closed with a surprising but deserved winner. The final was mainly a tactical game in which Cataño started very well with a 2-0 lead in sets: 15-10 in 17 and 15-2 in 8. But then, the 32-year-old Garzón, made a spectacular come back. He took the next three sets 15-9 in 7, 15-14 in 20 and 15-5 in 9 and finally was honored as the tournament winner.
Cesar Garzón showed his great fighting spirit in the final: ,,I was exhausted after a long day of competition, but could recover after the break. My confidence was growing when I could finish the third set with a run of ten. I started after the break with the goal to never give up, but of course it is very difficult to come back from 2-0 against the best player in the Pan-Americans. I managed to do i tand I'm the new champion now.''
In the semifinals, Arley Montoya lost control when he passed the 40 seconds limit. The Colombian took an unrecognizable attitude and was almost disqualified from the tournament. Eventually, he lost the match against the later champion 3-0 (15-5 in 6, 11-7 in the maximum 15 innings, 15-10 in 8.
In the other semifinal, Huberney Cataño beat Luis Aveiga 15-5 in 4 and 15-11 in 11, the best match of the final round: 2.000 average.
The Colombian champion Robinson Morales was eliminated by Julian Torres. Luis Aveiga defeated Daniel Morales in the quarters, Cesar Garzón defeated Andres Lizarazo in that round, Huberney Cataño defeated Mauricio Aguilar and Arley Montoya sealed victory against Julian Torres.
The best overall average of the tournament was played by José Juan Garcia, 1.372, the highest run (13) by Luis Martinez. Andres Lizarazo played a match against Cristian Sánchez with 2.727 average. The overall average of the tournament was 0.811: 14.100 caroms in 17.378 innings.
The Club 8 president, Guillermo Ochoa (left), tournament director Nicolas Isaza (right) and the finalists Luis Aveiga, Arley Montoya, Cesar Garzón and Huberney Cataño.
The final ranking:
1. Cesar Garzón
2. Huberney Cataño
3. Luis Aveiga (Ecu)
4. Arley Montoya
5. Julián Torres
6. Daniel Morales
7. Mauricio Aguilar
8. Andres Lizarazo
9. José Juan García
10. Robinson Morales
11. Pedro Gonzalez Jr.
12. Cristian Sanchez
13. Edwin Arango
14. Harry Reyes
15. Arley Galeano
16. Alejandro Upegui.
Robinson Morales was honorred by the organizer as the Colombian champion.