Biado beats Briton in final for 1st World Games gold

Southeast Asian Games-bound Carlo Biado captured the country’s firstever gold medal in the World Games, beating England’s Jayson Shaw, 11-7, Saturday in the men’s 9-ball pool final in Wroclaw, Poland.

Biado, the 34-year-old former golf caddy, opened his campaign with an 11-5 thrashing of Joshua Filler of Germany Wednesday.

On Friday, Biado nipped Fortunski Mieszko of Poland, 11-9, in the quarterfinals.

The top-ranked Filipino barged into the final by whipping Japanese Naoyuki Ol, 11-7, early Saturday.

Shaw, 28, reached the gold medal match by beating Alejandro Zulliy of Chile, 11-8; Matt Edwards of New Zealand, 11-5; and Ko Pin Yi of ChineseTaipei, 11-6.

The Briton lauded the Filipino in his Facebook account.

“World games update lost 11-7 to Carlo Biado was a very good match couple rolls at end change the match but that’s pool sometimes u get them sometimes you don’t. Congrats Carlo Biado u deserved it mate,” Shaw wrote.

Biado bettered the bronze finish of Dennis Orcollo during the 2013 World Games in Cali, Colombia.

Chezka Centeno, the other Filipino entry in the billiards event, lost to Han Yu of China, 9-3, in the playoff for the bronze medal.

The 18-year-old Centeno, who will defend her 9-ball title in the SEA Games three weeks from now, bowed to Chen Siming of China, 9-6, in the semifinals.

The World Games are held once every four years and feature non-Olympic sports.

This year’s edition featured 27 sports and four individual sports, encompassing 219 events.

The events include women’s compound in archery where Aya Cojuangco qualified to the main draw, but lost in the Round of 16.