Big Red Update: Klatt and Pagulayan Keep Canadian Hope's Alive

Jason Klatt, photo by Erik Hjorleifson

Today was another important elimination day at the World Championships in Qatar with 32 matches played. The winners of these matches joined the 32 undefeated players making up the second stage single elimination portion of the tournament. Canada started the day with three players left fighting for their tournament lives and looking to move on to stage 2.
The 12 o'clock time slot saw myself play Masakaa Tanaka. The early lead went to Tanaka despite only one mistake made by me in rack three; we split the next six racks making the score 7 to 3. It looked like it would be tough for me from there considering the alternate break format. An unexpected missed nine left the door open for me and I took advantage leveling the score at 7 all. Tanaka then broke and ran to go ahead 8 to 7. On the hill, after I made two safes, my opponent from Japan kicked in the two ball and ran out. Overall I feel like I played pretty well this tournament especially considering that it was my first international tournament in three years. I feel like the biggest thing that held me back was that I was not used to hitting the break at a higher speed which was required this week. Thanks to everyone who sent me messages of support and encouragement and to everyone who was able to cheer me on even in the early hours of the morning. My sister told me that my father had been setting his alarm to watch my matches, which meant a lot to me. In the 2 o'clock time slot Jason Klatt, originally from Selkirk, Manitoba, was up against Ivo Aarts from Holland. I stayed around to watch this match and I caught up with it when the match was 3 to 0 for Jason. Once again Klatt looked in very fine form, hitting the break with precision and with the pressure on, his opponent made some errors with the few chances he had. This match was a runaway as I only saw Aarts pocket 2 or 3 balls leading up to an 8 to 0 scoreline. He eventually closed out the match with another strong 9 to 1 victory and became the first Canadian through to the final 64 stage. Alex Pagulayan was looking to join Klatt in the final 64 spot during the 4 o'clock time slot. After trailing 5 to 2 he came back to win a thrilling hill hill match with a nice clutch shot on the 7 ball in the case game. Today I also saw a great match between Karl Boyes and Efren Reyes. Boyes got to the hill first at 8 to 5 but after he hooked himself a game later, you just knew this one would come down to the wire. In the hill game the two players traded safes which eventually lead to having a long tough shot on the 2 ball, which he failed to make much to the dismay of the partisan Filipino crowd who came to cheer on Efren. There are a lot of Filipinos who work in the service industry in Qatar and the Middle East and they always come out in droves to watch their hero. Boyes then proceeded to run out the rack with nice shots on the 2 ball and the 8 ball.
We are down to the final 64 now and I was surprised at the lack of super marquee match ups; I guess partly due to the fact that players from the winners side play players who qualified through the losers side in the first round. A couple that caught my eye though were Darren Appleton vs. Darryl Peach and Chang Jun Lin vs Shane Van Boening. For our two remaining Canadian players, Alex Pagulayan will play Mario He from Austria and Jason Klatt will play Jeff Deluna from the Phillipines. Both matches will be played at 6:30 am Eastern time so set your alarm and maybe you will be able to catch a couple racks before work tomorrow.

Efren Reyes playing Karl Boyes photo by Jason Klatt