Straight pool

Straight pool, also called 14.1 continuous or simply 14.1, is a pocket billiards game. It was the common sport of championship competition until it was overtaken by faster-playing games like nine-ball (and to a lesser extent eight-ball).

In straight pool, the shooter may attempt to shoot at any object ball on the table. The goal is to reach a set number of points determined by agreement before the game. One point is scored for each object ball pocketed where no foul is made. A typical game might require a player to score 100 points to win. In professional competition, straight pool is usually played to 125 points. Straight pool is a call-pocket game, meaning the player must indicate the intended object ball and pocket on every shot.

The game was the popular pool game in the United States, and immortalized in the 1961 film The Hustler. The game remains well known in the United States, Europe, Argentina and Japan, but is more obscure elsewhere. The first WPA-sanctioned World Straight Pool Championship was held in 2006 (the winner was Germany's Thorsten Hohmann, a player who also won the world nine-ball title three years earlier). Possibly as a consequence of this renewed professional competitive attention, public interest in the game has undergone a resurgence, as reflected in the amount of coverage 14.1 now receives in the billiards press.

Darren Appleton

Darren Appleton (born 8 February 1976 in Pontefract, West Yorkshire, England) is an English pool (pocket billiards) player, nicknamed "Dynamite". He won the first WPA World Ten-ball Championship in 2008 against Wu Chia-ching, the former world champion in both nine-ball and eight-ball from Taiwan. With the victory, he became the second male player from Britain to win a world championship after Daryl Peach who won the world nine-ball title a year earlier.

Career

Appleton, who started playing pool at age 12, was formerly the world ranked no. 1 player in British-style eight-ball pool. He was twice runner-up in the WEPF Eight-ball Pool World Championship. In 2006, he joined the International Pool Tour's standardised eight-ball competition. That year, he also won the Straight Pool Challenge at the Derby City Classic.

On 5 October 2008, Appleton claimed an upset victory in the inaugural WPA World Ten-ball Championship over Wu Chia-ching, 13–11, winning the US$100,000 top prize: "I've waited 16 years for this and have to enjoy the moment. I had mixed feelings and I was looking back at my disappointments in the past. I was ranked first (earlier in the decade) in the world but I have never won a world championship... It was a dream come true for me and I'm happy to win the title here in the Philippines."

CrossFit Games

The CrossFit Games is an athletic competition sponsored by Crossfit Inc. The competition has been held every summer since 2007. Athletes at the Games compete in workouts they learn about only hours beforehand, mostly comprising an assortment of standard aerobic, weightlifting, and gymnastics movements, as well as surprise elements that are not part of the typical CrossFit regimen such as an ocean swim, a short triathlon, or a softball throw. The Games are styled as a venue for determining the "Fittest on Earth," where competitors should be "ready for anything."

History

In 2011, the Games adopted an online format for the first stage of the qualification process, called the "CrossFit Open", to facilitate participation by athletes worldwide. Prior to the introduction of the Open, the preponderance of competitors were American (though the 2009 individual men's champion, Mikko Salo, is from Finland, and the 2010 women's runner-up, Annie Thorisdottir, is from Iceland). During the Open, a new workout is released each week on Thursday night and athletes have until Monday evening (Pacific Time) to complete the workout and submit their scores online, with either a video or validation by a CrossFit affiliate. Beginning in 2013, CrossFit began airing live announcements for the Open workouts and would have past CrossFit Games athletes immediately complete the workout in a head-to-head competition. The top CrossFit Open performers in each region advance to the regional events, held over the following two months; the top performers from these regional competitions go to the CrossFit Games, which in recent years have been held at the StubHub Center in Carson, CA.

Mika Immonen

Mika Immonen (born 17 December 1972) is a Finnish professional pool player, nicknamed "the Ice Man."

Career

He won the WPA World Nine-ball Championship in Cardiff, Wales in 2001. That same year, he was the runner-up to Corey Deuel in the US Open Nine-ball Championship

In 2002 he won the UPA International Ten-ball Championship.

He has represented Team Europe on thirteen occasions in the Mosconi Cup, most recently in 2013. During the 2008 event Mika was crowned MVP, forever banishing bad memories of a costly miss in the final game of the 2006 event.

In early 2009, Mika was awarded the title of Player of the Year. Subsequently, he also claimed that title for season 2009 and was awarded early 2010.

Mika was born in London, England, and is also an extremely accomplished snooker player, having amassed more than 100 century breaks.

Mika is a two-time Men's Division title-holder of the US Open Nine-ball Championship, where the world's top professional billiard players compete in Chesapeake, Virginia. In 2009 Mika won 14 straight matches, finishing with a close 13-10 victory over Ralf Souquet in the finals. On October 26, 2008, Mika claimed a 13-7 victory and pocketed the first-place prize of US$40,000 against runner-up Filipino Ronato Alcano, who settled for $20,000.

Niels Feijen

Niels Feijen (born 3 February 1977, The Hague) is a professional pool player, from the Hague, Netherlands. His nickname is "the Terminator". In 2014 he won the 9-ball championship.

In 2001, Feijen reached the finals of a nine-ball tournament in Tokyo, Japan. The event had a field of more than 700 players and offered the largest prize money at that time. However, he lost to Efren Reyes. In 2004, he won the inaugural Skins Billiards Championship with prize money of US$42,500. Feijen has won the European straight pool championship five times. In 2005 he was the winner of the Big Apple Nine-ball Classic, held in Queens, New York, an event with 128 of the world's best players. He represented Europe in the 2001, 2004-5, 2007-9 and 2011-15 Mosconi Cup events.

Feijen won the 2007 $50,000 winner-take-all International Challenge of Champions by defeating Lee Van Corteza. In 2008, Feijen won the World Straight Pool Championship with a victory over Francisco Bustamante in the finals. On October 5, 2008, he received the 3rd prize of $25,000 in the inaugural WPA World Ten-ball Championship.