Rubilen Amit got her break going when it mattered most as she finally put one over Chezka Centeno in a Southeast Asian Games gold medal match, rallying for a 7-3 win to take home top honors in the women's 9 ball singles of the 30th SEA Games at the Manila Hotel Tent.
Early on it looked like Centeno would score a repeat of her 10 ball finals triumph over Amit on Saturday as she built a 3-1 lead. But Amit's break finally worked, allowing her to sweep the last six matches for the gold, her first over Centeno in four SEAG finals meetings.
Breaking first, Amit couldn't capitalize and yielded the first rack to Centeno, who quickly went up 2-0 with a run out in the second rack. After Amit pulled one back, Centeno again looked solid in taking the fourth rack to build a two-rack lead.
Amit had struggled with her break the day before in the 10 ball final, but this time the balls were falling.
"The break. Definitely the break," she said when asked about the biggest difference between the 10 ball and 9 ball finals. "If you noticed (in 10 ball), I would break and she would run out."
The win, which Amit described as "bittersweet" since she did it at Centeno's expense, also made up for her crushing loss in the same event two years ago in Kuala Lumpur, where she scratched the cue ball in the very last rack of a hill-hill match and handed the gold to Centeno.
She also knew the significance of this particular gold medal. "This might be the last gold I win in the SEA Games on home soil," she admitted. "We don't know when we will host again. If it's another 14 years I don't think I'll be on that team. I'm 38 already."
Amit had repeatedly said that it didn't matter to her who would win in the final as long as it was Centeno she was up against. But she took some measure of satisfaction from this win since she knew she put on a good show.
"It's more of the performance. I don't mind if I win or lose as long as the performance is there. I get disappointed if I don't perform at the level I know I can or if I get emotional."
Earlier, Amit and Centeno teamed up in the women's 9 ball doubles and had to fend off a tough challenge from the Thai pair of Vutthiphan Kongkaket and Sasiwimon Wannaprathip, 7-6, in their quarterfinal encounter.
On the men's side, Warren Kiamco advanced to the quarterfinals of the men's 9 ball singles with a tight 9-7 win over Amnuayporn Chotipong of Thailand, while Dennis Orcollo also went through the wringer against talented Singaporean youngster Aloysius Yap before prevailing 9-7 in their men's 10 ball singles semifinal. Orcollo will face Vietnam's The Kien Do for the gold medal on Monday.