Pagulayan Continues at World Pool Championship

Former billiards world champion Alex Pagulayan (Philippines) looked in good shape as he comfortably made his way through to the last 16 with a 10-2 victory over Australia's Louis Condo.

Popular Pagulayan now will play either countryman Francisco Bustamante or Nick Van Den Berg of Holland in the last 16 on Friday.

On Table 4, unheralded German player Harry Stolka made his way in the last 16 and guaranteed a spot in next year's event with a convincing 10-2 victory over 18 year-old Taiwanese qualifier Wu Yu-lun.

Stolka, who reached the last 32 in Kaohsiung in 2005, is a veteran of the EuroTour and the 32 year-old from Munich will face either Daryl Peach or Lee Kun-fang for a spot in the quarter-finals.

Tournament favourite Shane Van Boening crashed out of the tournament at the hands of Hungary's Vilmos Foldes. 10-8 was the score and Foldes will be making his second last 16 appearance in three years.

Foldes was behind 6-4 in the first half of the game but dug deep to clinch the win. "I was confident from the beginning and just played my game," he said.

Alain Martel, a bronze medalist in Cardiff in 2001, won again today to carry the flag for Canada. 10-2 was the scoreline and his victim was Serbia's Goran Mladenovic.

Ex-champion Oliver Ortmann of Germany also departs the competition as he lost out to dangerous Taiwanese Kuo Po-cheng 10-7. Kuo was four balls away from winning this title in 2005 before Wu Chia-ching ran a four pack on him to steal the title.

There was joy for the Japanese contingent as veteran Satoshi Kawabata followed up his fine win over Yang Ching-sun yesterday with another fine performance to oust Vietnam's touted Luong Chi Dung from the competition.

Kawabata now faces local Joven Bustamante for a place in Saturday's quarter-finals.