Ronato Alcano was hailed a hero last Sunday night after pulling off a shining victory over Germany's Ralph Souquet to conquer the 2006 World Pool Championship before a crowd at the Philippine International aConvention Center (PICC).

     The score was 17-11 and the win netted the 34-year-old native of Calamba, Laguna one of pool’s richest prizes.

     Considered by Laguna Governor Teresita “Ningning” S. Lazaro as the new pride of Laguna, Alcano went home $100,000 richer and became only the third Filipino after the great Efren ‘Bata’ Reyes (1999) and Pagulayan (2004) to win this prestigious tournament.

     Alcano, who made the knockout phase at the bottom of the draw after winning just one match in the eliminations, zoomed ahead quickly, taking the first three racks, four of the first five, and eight of the first 10 to dictate the pace and put up the buffer he aimed for before the match.

     He beat highly fancied players such as the top Filipino bet Efren “Bata” Reyes (10-7, Last 32), no. 6 Luo Po-cheng of Chinese Taipei (11-5, Last 16), and deposed champion Wu Chia-ching also of Chinese Taipei (11-6, quarterfinals) before turning back Chinese Li He-went in the semis, 11-8 to make the final for the very first time.

     Gov. Ningning Lazaro said the victory of Alcano proved that “Laguneses still reigns supreme in sports and can excel in the highly competitive sports arena worldwide. This gives me new inspiration and energy to continue pushing the Provincial Government’s Sulong Edukasyon at Isports program under the flagship 7-Point Agenda so that we may continue to keep Laguna and the rest of the nation on top, particularly in the field of sports.” # (CHRIS SANJI)