EL GOUNA/HURGHADA – The world championship for juniors is much more than the man’s championship in three cushion the stage for young Korean talents. Haeng-Jik Kim took the title in his younger years four times and Tae-Kwan Kim, his young brother, was crowned champion last year in his own Korea. The 19-year new coming young man is the defending title holder this week (Thursday 8 until Saturday 10 December) in a field of sixteen players in the Egyptian resort El Gouna, close to Hurghada. The new location is hosting the world championship 3-cushion for junior players. The tournament will be followed by the last World Cup of this year's cycle.
The four Korean players in the field are viewed as favourites to win the title, the Europeans as the dark horses, including two strong Spanish players and the French coming man Thibaut Espada. Haeng-Jik Kim, runner-up in the World championship in Bordeaux last month, says about his younger brother: ,,He lives with me in Incheon, has finished school and now practices five or six hours every day.’’
The Korean wonder boy Myung-Woo Cho (18), who reached the semifinals of the Guri World Cup this year, tops the average list with 1.600. Tae-Kwan Kim won last year's world title in a final against Jung-Ju Shin, now also a known player in the World Cups. In the shadow of four Koreans, no less than three Egyptian juniors are in the field. Youssef Oussama from Alexandrië is their national champion, with Ahmet Hatem coming in second and Mahmoud Ayman, last year's champion, third. The Egyptian junior players have lessons given by Spanish coach Jose Maria Quetglas four times every year, in Alexandria. Mahmoud Ayman: ,,He is here for two weeks twice a year, and twice for one week. He is the best coach we could wish.’’
The billiard arena for both the junior and the World Cup is in the Hotel Movenpick in El Gouna, Omar Samy is the tournament director. The sixteen players come from Europe (6), Asia (4), America (3) and Africa (3).
The flights:
Group A:
Tae-Kwan Kim (Korea), 1.250 Youssef Ossama (Egypte), 0.830 Carlos Anguita (Spanje), 0.993 Mahmoud Ayman (Egypte) 0.750
Group B:
Andres Carrion (Spanje) 1.050 Jiseung Han (Korea) 1.155 Christoper Ramirez (Peru) 0.713 Thibaut Espada (Frankrijk) 1.037
Group C:
Caro Nelson (Colombia) 0.719 Tom Loewe (Duitsland) 0.937 Patrick Butora (Oostenrijk) 0.857 Jung-Ju Shin (Korea) 1.190
Group D:
Myung-Woo Cho (Korea) Christian Sanchez (Colombia) Arda Gungor (Turkije) Ahmed Hatem (Egypte).
The opening ceremony is on Thursday 8 December at 11.00. First matches in the group stage start at 12.00. The semifinals and final are on Saturday, at 12.00, 14.00 and 17.00. In the groups, matches will be played to 25 points. On the final day matches are to 35.
All matches are live on kozoom.com