'Witch' Efren Reyes attends SEA Games at the age of 69

Philippine Billiards Federation President Robert Mananquil confirmed Reyes will join Francisco Dela Cruz in two men's carom events, instead of his forte pool. Reyes and Cruz also won two bronze medals in one-band carom at the 31st SEA Games last year in Vietnam. At that time, many Vietnamese spectators gathered around to take pictures with him.

Reyes was born in 1954, has a knack for playing pool, having won the world championship of 9 balls in 1999 and 8 balls in 2004, and was the first person to do this. He was nicknamed "The Magician" thanks to his unexpected muscle lines. Reyes has won more than 100 international titles, all kinds of SEA Games medals in billiards content such as carom, pool, snooker, rotation (15 balls) or British billiards. Particularly at carom, Reyes has yet to win a gold medal.

Pool is the strength of the Philippines, when they won all four gold medals of this content at the 31st SEA Games. Carlo Biado and Johann Chua are the defending champions of the 10-ball and 9-ball tournament, respectively.

Vietnam has 12 players to attend the 32nd SEA Games, in which Nguyen Duc Anh Chien and Nguyen Tran Thanh Tu will participate in the carom content, competing with Reyes. Thanh Tu is the defending champion of the SEA Games 1 team, and Anh Chien is the 3rd runner-up. Vietnam is still the highest rated in men's carom content.

In the men's pool content, Nguyen Anh Tuan, Ta Van Linh and Luong Duc Thien will represent Vietnam against former world champion Biado. SEA Games 32 also has two other genres, snooker and British billiards, and Vietnam both have players present.

In billiards at the 31st SEA Games, the Philippines topped the team with four gold medals, Vietnam two gold medals. Singapore, Malaysia, Myanmar and Thailand one gold each.