YOU just got to be impressed with Rubilen Amit, inarguably the best Filipina billiards player we have produced.

And the more you will be impressed with her personal advocacy for women’s billiards where she spends a lot of time and effort, and her own money too.

At 41, Rubilen is already a three time world champion and currently ranked no.26th in the world, she went as high as no.3 before several years ago, then consider the 10 gold medals she has won in the South East Asian Games, not to mention other international titles she has already in her pocket.

In the last world pool championship in Atlantic City last January, she finished 24th while her heir apparent, Chezka Centeno got as far as the quarterfinals and now ranks no.8.

After these two however,no female player is in sight to succeed them, thst is the reason why Rubilen embarked on her advocacy for the sports, search for the next generation of female billiards players.

It was during the pandemic that the thought of working on this goal came to Rubilen.

But it was only last year when Covid 19 was on the wane that she was able to launch the first season of the all-women billiards Amit Cup that featured 5 legs plus a final day featuring the top 16 players after the five legs.

She was pleasantly surprised to get 24 entries in the first leg, 33 in the second leg, 52, 55, and 58 in the succeeding legs though several of the players were repeat entries wishing to earn more points, but it was a lot more than Rubilen expected, more so that there were entries from as far as Zamboanga, Pangasiban, Batangas, Laguna, and Cavite.

It was Mandaluyong bet, 24 year old criminology student at Arellano University Leslie Gaite who ruled the finals, edging out Bacolod entry Carmille Lumawag 9-8 in the race to 9 contest, and she might just follow her idols Rubilen and Chezka’s path.

What Rubilen was extra happy about was that most of the entries were new faces, giving credence to her belief there are female billiards talents out there just waiting to be found.

And she intends to follow thru on June with a second season with the participants to be divided already into intermediate and advanced categories to balance the competition.

Much as she would like to expand in the provinces, she is not sure if there enough entries for provincial legs.

Aand since she was open to holding free clinics in the provinces, I told her I will try to connect her to Laoag City Mayor Mike Keon for a possible grassroots women billiards program in the North.

Other possible out of town areas she mentioned were GenSan, Cagayan de Oro, and Bacolod

She knows what she is doing is right is the fact many people have been helping her in this endeavor, a billiards pupil was a major sponsor, using Scarab as the corporate backer, the Marboys Bilkiards Cafe in Paranaque hosted the finals of the Amit Cup, and rven the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) through the office of Comm. Bong Coo sponsored a separate tournament just for women.

Rubilen sees herself playing the game until she is 50 years old as she is still capable of competing against the world’s best, but her remaining years in the sport will be divided between playing and organizing events for women.

And I wish her success in this worthy advocacy of hers and will support her in whatever way I can.

I have to wish her and Chezka the best of luck too.

They will need a lot of it when they compete in the Cambodia SEA Games next week, the only female event is carom and the two have never played it in a tournament before.

But guess who is very strong in this category?

Rubilen says it is a Cambodian lady who is the world champion, at least two golds down the drain for us.

That is how Cambodia stacked up the odds against the other countries.

Oh well. By Lito Cinco