HOUSTON - The 54-year-old American Hugo Patiño has conquered his fourth American three cushion title in Houston, Texas. The born Colombian played an unforgettable final in this USBA championship against the defending champion Miquel Torres. Patiño went from the break with a run of 18. The New York-based player won the match 40-32 in 30 innings. Pedro Piedrabuena and John Park were with them on the podium.
The Patiño run remembered to a training match in which he once finished with a run of 18. The fans in the billiard hall begged him to continue, after which Patiño made 13 more points: a run of 31, but no record of course, because it was a training match. Hugo Patiño also was one of the players in the famous 1st Mc Creery tournament in New York last year, where his best match was a victory 40 in 19 innings against the later winner Frédéric Caudron.
At the USBA championship, played in US Bida in Houston, Hugo Patiño was the better of Michael Kang in the quarterfinals, he won by a remarkable score against Pedro Piedrabuena in the semi-finals (40-10 in 20 innings) and finally in the golden match against Miguel Torres . Pedro Piedrabuena finished third on the ranking by beating John Park 40-16 in 28. Miguel Torres bested John Park in the semifinals 40-21 in 38.
The final ranking of the championship (average, highest runs):
1 Hugo Patiño 1.481-18
2 Miguel Torres 0.950-7
3 Pedro Piedrabuena 1.444-9
4 John Park 0.807-5
5 Tran Thai 1.164-9
6 Phoung Le 0.904-4
7 Kang Lee 0.916-6
8 Michael Kang 1.081-8
9 Kim Hoang 1.105-4
10 Edward Gomez 0.907-5.