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The World Pool Championships
The Philippine International Convention Center (PICC)
Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP Complex)
Roxas Blvd.
1307 Pasay City
Metro Manila
Philippines
Tel: (632) 551-7920 / 551-7415 / 551-6917
Fax: (632) 551-6372
www.worldpoolchampionship.com
www.2006worldpool.com

4-12 November 2006

World pool Championships Qualifying Criteria Explained!

Matchroom Sport can announce the 117 players so far qualified to compete in the 2006 Philippines World Pool Championship which takes place at the Philippine International Convention Center from 4th to 12th November.

All named players have qualified via the Category System which was devised in 2005 and alongside their name are their country and the means by which they made their way into the starting line-up.

Click on "Read More..." for the list of confirmed players.

There are two players yet to be named by the AAPA in Africa , whose qualifying event takes place shortly.

The remaining nine spots will determined by the pre-event qualifier which takes place at Star Billiards outside Manila from Friday 27th October.

The 2006 WPA World Pool Championship Entrants
Player	Country	Qualifying Category
Gustavo Espinosa	Argentina	South America Cat. 4
Stuart Lawler	Australia	Oceania Cat. 4
Lou Condo	Australia	Oceania Cat. 5
David Reljic	Australia	Oceania Cat. 6
Chris Calabresse	Australia	Oceania Cat. 6
Prince Haji Billah	Brunei	Sponsor�s Wildcard
Edwin Montal	Canada	North America Cat.6
Tyler Edey	Canada	North America Cat.6
Harold Rousseau	Canada	North America Cat.6
Nicolas Guimond	Canada	North America Cat.6
Enrique Rojas	Chile	South America Cat. 4
Alejandro Carvajal	Chile	South America Cat. 4
Li He-wen	China	Asia Cat. 5
Fu Jian-bo	China	Asia Cat. 10
Xu Meng	China	Asia Cat. 10
Wu Chia-ching	Chinese Taipei	Category 1
Chang Pei-wei	Chinese Taipei	Category 2
Kuo Po-cheng	Chinese Taipei	Category 2
Huang Kun-chang	Chinese Taipei	Category 3
Chang Jung-ling	Chinese Taipei	Category 3
Chen Ying-chieh	Chinese Taipei	Category 3
Wang Hung-hsiang	Chinese Taipei	Category 3
Yang Ching-shun	Chinese Taipei	Asia Cat. 5
Chao Fong-pang	Chinese Taipei	Asia Cat. 5
Fu Che-wei	Chinese Taipei	Asia Cat. 5
Lee Kun-fang	Chinese Taipei	Asia Cat. 9
Liu Cheng-chuan	Chinese Taipei	Asia Cat. 9
Philipp Stojanovic	Croatia	Europe Cat. 7
Roman Hybler	Czech Republic	Category 3
Imran Majid	England	Europe Cat. 4
Darren Appleton	England	Europe Cat. 5
Daryl Peach	England	Europe Cat. 6
Andy Worthington	England	Europe Cat. 6
Kevin Uzzell	England	Europe Cat. 6
Steve Davis	England	Europe Cat. 8
Raj Hundal	England	Europe Cat. 8
Mika Immonen	Finland	Category 1
Markus Juva	Finland	Europe Cat. 5
Vincent Facquet	France	Europe Cat. 4
Benjamin Belhassen	France	Europe Cat. 7
Thorsten Hohmann	Germany	Category 1
Oliver Ortmann	Germany	Europe Cat. 4
Ralf Souquet	Germany	Europe Cat. 4
Thomas Engert	Germany	Europe Cat. 5
Andreas Roschkowsky	Germany	Europe Cat. 5
Christian Reimering	Germany	Europe Cat. 5
Jorn Kaplan	Germany	Europe Cat. 6
Sven Pauritsch	Germany	Europe Cat. 6
Michael Schmidt	Germany	Europe Cat. 6
Evangelos Vettas	Greece	Europe Cat. 7
Kong Man-ho	Hong Kong	Asia Cat. 11
Vilmos Foldes	Hungary	Category 3
Manan Chandra	India	Asia Cat. 11
Dharminder Singh Lily	India	Asia Cat. 8
Muhammad Zulfikri	Indonesia	Asia Cat. 9
Ricky Yang	Indonesia	Asia Cat. 9
Apsi Chaniago	Indonesia	Asia Cat.8
Roy Apancho	Indonesia	Asia Cat.8
John Wims	Ireland	Oceania Cat. 6
Fabio Petroni	Italy	Europe Cat. 6
Takeshi Okumura	Japan	Asia Cat. 4
Masaki Tanaka	Japan	Asia Cat. 5
Kunihiko Takahashi	Japan	Asia Cat. 9
Jeong Young-hwa	Korea	Asia Cat. 10
Ryu Seong-woo	Korea	Asia Cat. 10
Patrick Ooi Fook Yuen	Malaysia	Asia Cat. 10
Ibrahim bin Amir	Malaysia	Asia Cat. 10
Tony Drago	Malta	Europe Cat. 4
Ernesto Dominguez	Mexico	South America Cat. 4
Nick van den Berg	Netherlands	Category 3
Niels Feijen	Netherlands	Europe Cat. 4
Huidji See	Netherlands	Europe Cat. 6
Marcel Martens	Netherlands	Europe Cat. 6
Alex Lely	Netherlands	Europe Cat. 6
Ceri Worts	New Zealand	Oceania Cat. 4
Roger Lysholm	Norway	Europe Cat. 7
Jose Parica	Philippines	North America Cat. 4
Marlon Manalo	Philippines	Category 3
Alex Pagulayan	Philippines	Category 1
Efren Reyes	Philippines	Asia Cat. 5
Francisco Bustamante	Philippines	Asia Cat. 5
Ramil Gallego	Philippines	Asia Cat. 5
Rodolfo Luat	Philippines	Asia Cat. 5
Gandy Valle	Philippines	Asia Cat. 9
Jeff de Luna	Philippines	Sponsor�s Wildcard
Ronato Alcano	Philippines	Sponsor�s Wildcard
Dennis Orcollo	Philippines	Sponsor�s Wildcard
Roland Garcia	Philippines	Sponsor�s Wildcard
Radoslaw Babica	Poland	Europe Cat. 6
Ahmed al Sada	Qatar	Asia Cat. 11
Konstantin Stepanov	Russia	Europe Cat. 6
Pat Holtz	Scotland	Sponsors WildCard
Sandor Tot	Serbia Montenegro	Europe Cat. 6
Chang Keng-kwang	Singapore	Asia Cat. 10
Toh Lian-han	Singapore	Asia Cat. 10
Bernard Tey Choon Kiat	Singapore	Asia Cat. 10
David Alcaide	Spain	Europe Cat. 6
Marcus Chamat	Sweden	Category 3
David Larsson	Sweden	Europe Cat. 4
Marco Tschudi	Switzerland	Europe Cat. 4
Tepwin Arunnath	Thailand	Asia Cat. 11
Earl Strickland	USA	Category 1
Rodney Morris	USA	Category 3
Jeremy Jones	USA	Category 3
Corey Deuel	USA	Category 3
Johnny Archer	USA	North America Cat. 4
Mike Davis	USA	North America Cat. 4
Shawn Putnam	USA	North America Cat. 6
Charlie Williams	USA	North America Cat. 6
Troy Frank	USA	North America Cat. 6
Rob Saez	USA	North America Cat. 6
Charles Bryant	USA	North America Cat. 6
Tony Crosby	USA	North America Cat. 6
Gabe Owen	USA	North America Cat. 7
Gregorio Sanchez	Venezuela	South America Cat. 4
Thanh Nam Nguyen	Vietnam	Category 3
Luong Chi Dung	Vietnam	Asia Cat. 10

QUALIFICATION SYSTEM FOR 2006 WPA WORLD POOL CHAMPIONSHIP

The purpose of this category system is to give all serious pool players in the world, the opportunity to compete in the World Pool Championship.

This system has been devised using professional golf tours as a model and it is a system that rewards achievement and ability.

Wherever possible, emerging pool nations have been accommodated to give the event the geographical spread it has enjoyed in past years.

There are a couple of major difference between this system and past years when a straightforward quota has been awarded to various continental associations.

The first is that this system is cross-bordered. That means that players from anywhere in the world can compete in events in other territories and qualify for the final stages of the World Pool Championship.

For example, if an American national decided to enter a Euro Tour event and was to win or come second, then that would give him a spot in the final 128. By the same token, if a European player won or came second in a UPA event in the US, then that too would gain him entrance.

The second major difference is that countries and or continents do not have a set allocation of players. This comes with rewarding success and achievement.

The first three categories are general and applicable to the six areas of Europe, Asia, North America, Oceania, Africa and Developing Pool Nations.

Categories 4 and upwards are different in each territory.

Players will always take their position from the HIGHER category. For example; Alex Pagulayan would enter the 2006 World Pool Championship as a Category 1 player, due to him winning the event in 2004.

However, Alex would also fall into several other categories due to his achievements around the world over the past 12 months.

The fact that he is a Category 1 player DOES NOT free up spots to other players in the other categories he could qualify under. Be aware of this as it is a basic principle of this system.

Categories 1 � 3

Category 1
Previous five winners of the WPA World Pool Championship (in 2006 that would be Wu CC, A Pagulayan, T Hohmann, E Strickland, M Immonen)

Category 2
Previous three beaten finalists at the WPA World Pool Championship (in 2006 they would be Kuo PC, Chang PW, A Pagulayan)

Category 3
Last 16 finisher at the previous WPA World Pool Championship (in 2006 they would be Wu CC, Kuo PC, R Morris, M Manalo, Huang KC, N van den Berg, T Hohmann, M Immonen, R Hybler, TN Nguyen, Chang JL, V Foldes, M Chamat, J Jones, Chen YC, C Deuel)

AFRICA

Category 4
Continental Champion and runner-up ( 2 players )

ASIA

Category 4
Champion and beaten finalist from the All Japan Championship: 2 spots can be Asians or non-Asians

Category 5
APBU � ESPN Asian Tour Ranking 1-10

Category 6
Top 5 of APBU ranking

Category 7
APBU Asian Championship Champion and the beaten finalist

Category 8
APBU Qualifying Tournament for those countries who are not yet nominated through Category 1-7. Each of these countries can send 2 players to this qualifying tournament. Top 5 from this Qualifying Tournament will be entered into the Championship Tournament.

Category 9
National Champions and Runners Up from the following countries

Philippines
Taiwan
Japan
Indonesia

Category 10
National Champions and Runners Up from the following countries

Singapore
China
Korea
Malaysia
Vietnam

Category 11
National Champions in the following countries

Thailand
India
Qatar
Hong Kong

EUROPE

Category 4
The Top Eight players in the 9-Ball division at the 2006 European Pool Championships

The Gold Medallist in the Straight Pool division at the 2006 European Pool Championships

Category 5
Winner and runner-up of all Euro Tour events that take place between 1st May 2005 and 30th April 2006.

Category 6
The top 28 ranked European players on the EPBF Euro Tour Rankings up to 30th April 2006

Category 7
The next five players ranked between 29-50 representing five different European countries not represented in the above six categories from the EPBF Euro Tour Rankings up to 30th April 2006

Category 8
Team Europe representatives at the previous three Mosconi Cups.

NORTH AMERICA

Category 4
Winner and runner-up of all UPA-sanctioned 9 ball events having a field of 48 or more players, that take place within a period that commences immediately after the previous year�s cut-off date (May 15 05) and finishes on the 15th May on the year of the World Pool Championship. This can be extended to 29th May to include the BCA Open (as was) and the Predator Florida Open.

Category 5
The winner and runner-up in the following events having taken place in the 12 months period (May 15 05 � May 28 06) prior to the World Pool Championship: the US Open 9-Ball Championship, the BCA Open 9-Ball Championship

Category 6
The top two highest finishing players at the 2005 Canadian National 9-Ball Championship and the top two highest ranked players on the Stan James Canadian Tour

Category 7
The top 12 ranked North American players on the UPA Calendar rankings up to 28th May.

Category 8
Team America representatives at the previous three Mosconi Cups (in the case of the 2006 Championship, they will be 2005, 2004, 2003)

OCEANIA

Category 4
National Champions of the following countries:

Australia
New Zealand

Category 5
Winners of the following tournaments:

Oceania Championship
Trans Tasman Championship

Category 6
Next 2 highest ranked players on Oceania Rankings

SOUTH AMERICA

Category 4
The Top 5 players at the CPB (South Central American) Championship.

OTHERS

Sponsors� Wildcards
There will be up to an additional 10 spots available which will be awarded at the promoter�s discretion.

Qualification Tournament
There will be less than 128 names so to make up a full field, a qualifying event will take place in the host city in the week before the Championship. The exact number of spots will only be known in the September.

It will also form the basis of the waiting list in the event of any players not being able to attend.

RELATED ARTICLES AT WWW.PRO9.CO.UK

The World Pool Championships Qualifying Criteria Explained
An exclusive invitation for Pro9.co.uk members from Edwin Reyes!
2006 Philippines World Pool Championship Qualifying Tournament
MatchroomSports announce confirmed players for 2006 WPC
The 2006 World Pool Championships

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