LAST SIXTEEN FOR THE WORLD TITLE IN BORDEAUX

BORDEAUX - The applause from the French crowd accompanied Jérémy Bury's unexpected exit. The star of the 3-cushion summer, who had victories in New York and Guri, was in a comfortable position (40-33) when his Belgian opponent, not spoiled with World Championship success since 2010, burst his bubble. Eddy Leppens raised his cue in the air after a triumphant equalizing run of seven, which gave him the group win on average.

The World championship in the Palais des Congrès had its third and final day of qualification, with sixteen group winners and 32 players who can pack their bags now. Torbjörn Blomdahl, who crushed Ramon Rodriguez in the home stretch, Eddy Leppens, who pulled the trigger against French hero Jérémy Bury and Jérôme Barbeillon with a spectacular win over Frédéric Caudron were the most notable winners on the "decision day".

Murat Naci Coklu was the last finisher, with a miraculous escape against Jung-Han Heo (40-40), just enough to qualify as group winner. Marco Zanetti was the best player of the day, he won in only 14 innings. Tayfun Tasdemir, who had played so poorly on the opening day, was almost as good as the Italian in stages the evening round, when he beat Quoc Nguyen Nguyen. The Turk finished with runs of twelve and five, recovering from the first day with 40-19 in 15.

Dani Sánchez had built up a monster lead (he had 25 after 3 innings) and in the late stages needed to work very hard to even draw with French substitute player Pierre Soumagne. Semih Sayginer, after his flawless opening match in 10 innings, now overcame last year's runner-up Dong Koong Kang.

Last year, in the same Palais des Congrès, four Koreans made it into the final sixteen. This year, the Turks are leading the way with three players (Sayginer, Coklu, Tasdemir), there are two Belgians (Merckx and Leppens), two Koreans (Haeng Jik Kim and Jae Ho Cho) and surprisingly, two Colombians (Robinson Morales and Huberney Cataño).

Jérémy Bury will not forget his deciding match against Eddy Leppens any time soon. His fierce start with nine and a 19-6 lead after 5 innings got the French crowd all fired up. But in the second part of the match, Leppens fought back like a true Red Devil. The scoreboard went to 31-31 and tension started to boil. Bury was the first to make a run for the line, with a five. He put the score on 39-31 and when he finished, it was 40-33.

Eddy Leppens: ,,I kept believing, because I had such an unlucky exit to the tournament last year, that couldn't happen twice.'' The Belgian calmly took to his task, kept scoring even from tricky positions, and was absolutely ecstatic when he had equalized and knew the place in the last sixteen was his. Dani Sánchez had done it earlier in the day against Pierre Soumagne, and Torbjörn Blomdahl with his runs of seven and four gave Leppens the example for his own magic finish.

Murat Naci Coklu would copy that against Jung-Han Heo, who had made a great comeback in the match but missed match point twice, giving the winner of "La Baule" three chances to get to the finish first (40-40 in 25). Heo's equalizer was for statistical purposes only.

Haeng-Jik Kim was too strong for Marc Boingneres, which reduced the home country's half dozen to just one single player: Jérôme Barbeillon, who made it to the last sixteen.

Huberney Cataño won against Roland Forthomme (40-31 in 22), making him the second Colombian in the final field.

The matches for Friday:

13.30:

Semih Sayginer-Murat Naci Coklu
Jérôme Barbeillon-Huberney Cataño
Haeng-Jik Kim-Tayfun Tasdemir
Marco Zanetti-Torbjörn Blomdahl

16.00:
Robinson Morales-Dani Sánchez
Eddy Merckx-Jae Ho Cho
Nikos Polychronopoulos-Minh Cam Ma
Dick Jaspers-Eddy Leppens.

The top ranking on average after the preliminaries:

1 Semih Sayginer 2.285

2 Dani Sánchez 2.162

3 Dick Jaspers 2.105

3 Robinson Morales 2.105

3 Eddy Leppens 2.105

6 Marco Zanetti 2.051

6 Haeng-Jik Kim 2.051

8 Eddy Merckx 2.000

9 Nikos Polychronopoulos 1.951

10 Jérôme Barbeillon 1.777 

Bordeaux, 15th November.

The 69th UMB World championship three-cushion, that started today, 15 November at the Palais des Congrès in Bordeaux, not only provides 

The tournament, organized by Kozoom international, gets an unprecedented tv coverage and will also attract thousands of spectators and hundreds of people from the billiard industry to the fifth largest city in France. UMB president Farouk Barki, Kozoom director Xavier Carrer and French federation president Jean-Pierre Sinanian opened the tournament in the wonderful venue and welcomed players, sponsors and audience.

Torbjörn Blomdahl defends the title he won last year in the same city. The competition is battle-ready for an attack on the position of the Swede, who is now the number one again on the global ranking. The winner will be awarded with 10.000 euros, but even more important for the players is the world title crown for one year.

UMB President Farouk Barki considers this tournament, with its huge global appeal as a highlight of the year in which billiards has made a great step forward. ,,The main goal when we started with the new UMB-board in January this year, was to bring our sport to the level that we all, but most of all the players deserve. We have achieved a lot in a short time, thanks to the media attention and the partnership with Kozoom. I am sure that the growing attention will bring more sponsors for the next few years, especially with the new contract with MBC, the biggest sports channel from South Korea.’’

The world championship is not only a sporting contest - with Torbjörn Blomdahl, Frédéric Caudron, Dick Jaspers, Eddy Merckx, Dani Sánchez, Marco Zanetti and the best Asians players as the main favourites - but also a media spectacle never seen before. The UMB (world federation) will also organize a meeting where important decisions are expected. Farouk Barki: ,,We will talk about more prize money for the players in all World Cups as of January 2017.’’ 'The president also expects that the executive committee, which now exists of three members after the suspension of the Korean Steve Lee, will be brought back to four members. Barki: ,,The main mission of the board for the coming years is to further expand the media attention, the prize money for the World Cup and to continue to guarantee the stability of the calendar.’’

Two players from the participants at the world championship this week, Michael Nilsson and Henry Diaz, had to withdraw and will be replaced by two French players: Cédric Melnytschenko and Pierre Soumagne. Blomdahl, Caudron, Jaspers, Merckx and Zanetti are the leaders in the first five groups. The Koreans and the French are represented by six players.

The tournament starts on Tuesday, November 15th at 13.00 with the official opening ceremony, followed by the first sessions. On Wednesday and Thursday the sessions start at 13.30. The knockout phase starts on Friday at 13.30 with the eighth-finals, followed by the quarterfinals at 18.30. The semi-finals are on Saturday at 13.00 and 15.00, the final is at 18.00.

The new group format:

Group A:

Torbjörn Blomdahl (Sw)

Christadkis Christoforou (Cyp)

Ramon Rodriguez (Per)

Group B:

Frédéric Caudron (Bel)

Jérôme Barbeillon (Fr)

Erick Tellez (CR)

Group C:

Dick Jaspers (Neth)

Arnim Kahofer (Aus)

Antoine Gholam (Lib)

Group D:

Eddy Merckx (Bel)

Jae Guen Kim (Kor)

Raimond Burgman (Neth)

Group E:

Marco Zanetti (It)

Hyung Ki Kim (Kor)

Hugo Patino (USA)

Group F:

Dani Sánchez (Sp)

Christian Rudolph (Ger)

Pierre Soumagne (Fr)

Group G:

Sameh Sidhom (Eg)

Ma Minh Cam (Viet)

Kostas Kokkoris (Gri)

Group H:

Nikos Polychronopoulos (Gri)

Javier Palazón (Sp)

Cetin Behzat (Swi)

Group I:

Jérémy Bury (Fr)

Eddy Leppens (Bel)

Cédric Melnytschenko (Fr)

Group J:

Quyet Chien Tran (Viet)

Ihab El Messery (Eg)

Robinson Morales (Col)

Group K:

Dong Koong Kang (Kor)

Semih Saygıner (Tur)

Ryuuji Umeda (Jap)

Group L:

Jae Ho Cho (Kor)

Riad Nady (Eg)

Radek Novak (Cze)

Group M:

Roland Forthomme (Bel)

Huberney Cataño (Col)

Lars Dunch (Den)

Group N:

Tayfun Tasdemir (Tur)

Nguyen Quoc Nguyen (Viet)

Jean-Christophe Roux (Fr)

Group O:

Haeng-Jik Kim (Kor)

Pedro Piedrabuena (USA)

Marc Boigneres (Fr)

Group P:

Jung-Han Heo (Kor)

Murat Naci Coklu (Tur)

Guillermo Perez (Arg).

The UMB and Kozoom warmly invite everyone to visit the championship live or watch it on the internet. All matches will be broadcast live on Kozoom.

BORDEAUX - The world championship 3-Cushion, played in the Palais des Congrès in Bordeaux for the second year running, will be the centre of attention for the international billiard industry and a great multi-media event for sport fans. Forty-three year old Frenchman Xavier Carrer, founder and director of Kozoom, heads the team that organizes the tournament. With his partner William Oh and Kozoom Korea, he has created the joint-venture Kozoom International six months ago, which has recently signed a contract with MBC Sports+, Korea's major sports channel. Carrer views that partnership as the stepping stone to a worldwide media project: 'watching all major UMB tournaments between baseball or football on the biggest sport channel is a big step to promote 3-Cushion.'

The world's best players gather in Bordeaux from 15 to 19 November. Kozoom wants to showcase the tournament better, more professionally and with the best possible camera material, for the world to enjoy. Carrer: ,,The arena will hold fifteen cameras, that are able to cover 2 tables with TV production quality and 2 tables with monocam streaming during the qualification stage.''

But this year, Kozoom not only focuses on the live action, as it does for all major tournaments, but also on the production of a new 26 minutes highlights magazine with crucial moments, interviews, backstage and tips to be shown all around the world. ,,We start in Bordeaux but we plan to produce it on every Worldcup and Worldchampionship, which means 7-10 episodes per season. Within a year, we want to distribute that promotional magazine to almost 20 TV channels. Our goal is to reach 100 channels within 3 years.''

Kozoom staff writers Frits Bakker and Markus Schönhoff spoke with Xavier Carrer, and asked him about the world championship and the media event.

Kozoom: Not even two more weeks, and the world championship will again take place in Bordeaux. Last year, the tournament ended in an unforgettable climax when Torbjörn Blomdahl won it. During the summer, Jérémy Bury was the sport's most prolific player. What is your expectation for the 2016 edition?

Xavier Carrer: I hope that it will be as exciting as it was last year, but another dream final like the one between Blomdahl and Dong Koong Kang may be too much to hope for. I will be happy if many matches will give the spectators something to talk about, and turn into stories that will be told for years. Not just last year's final, but matches like the ones between Dani Sánchez and Ruben Legazpi, Sameh Sidhom versus Frédéric Caudron, the great comeback by Marco Zanetti against Xuan Cuong Ma. That is what memories are made of.

Kozoom: The players and spectators loved last year's WC, it was viewed as one of the best world championships in history. How do you look back on that first edition, how did the sponsors react, was everybody happy?

Xavier Carrer: We have demonstrated that our sport deserves to be invested in. What the first WC has left us with, is the conviction that 3-cushion is not only a great sport, but also a great product. I'm not afraid to use this word. It was my main goal with Kozoom to reach this level, this quality, in a world championship in Bordeaux, with this many spectators, sponsors and other VIP's. How shall I put it? We are holding a diamond. What we need to do, is package it with care and invest in publicity and marketing. Our main mission is to find a way to reach a broad audience. Today, the sport is not yet big enough to convince large sponsors. We need to show the diamond in a nice box, to our colleagues and partners, create a business-to-business atmosphere. During the 2015 WC, we made a good start doing that. We were able to extend most of these relationships, because the sponsors were enthusiastic. Now we must capitalize, and develop new events as a follow-up to this WC. We are going to use this world championship as a kick-off for a brighter future.

Kozoom: What can you say about the organization, as compared to last year? 
Xavier Carrer: The feedback was good, so we did not want to change much. We don't want to risk changes that might make it worse, not better, so the set-up will mostly be like it was last year. The scope of the presentation, in terms of media, will be a lot bigger as a result of our contract with MBC in South Korea, which was preceded by our three and a half year contract with the UMB. It enables us to increase exposure, and it will make our sport much more interesting for sponsors to invest in.

Kozoom: What do these developments mean for the future of the sport? Will young players be inspired, will it be a wake-up call for federations? 

Xavier Carrer: When I look at countries like France, Spain and the Netherlands, work is already being done to develop and coach talents. A lot of young players can often watch the best players in the world on Kozoom. For sure, it helps to learn and give motivation. I do realize that it is a long process. But with more media attention and sponsor involvement, the wheels will spin faster. By consequence, the future of professional players will be better. Not only for the World's Top 10 but for the Top 30. I have a real passion for blliards but I'm not a dreamer. I truly believe that 3-Cushion has a nice future if we all do the job.

Kozoom: How do we look at the media interest in this upcoming event? 

Xavier Carrer: The contract with MBC means that we have partnered with Korea's prime sports channel, which has an enormous coverage. The international billiard industry also has great interest in the Bordeaux event, but we want to focus on other countries as well. We will make a 26-minute promotion program with all the highlights of this WC, and distribute it to media all over the world. And we can use all the help we can get! I invite every billiard fan who is connected to people in the world of broadcasting, to introduce Kozoom and be part of our network. Billiards is a small community but we can be stronger, we need connected people who can help us broaden the horizon. The contract with MBC enables us to stream all the major events in prime quality. We can offer a finished product to every interested tv-channel. What is now happening in South Korea, could happen in - for instance - Turkey in a few years, and in other countries. I just returned from a four-day congress in Monaco, where all the world's major sports channels were present. We have presented 3-Cushion events there, for the first time. It was the 'place to be' for our sport. Now we must make it our mission to convince more sports networks. The first step: make our promotion video with the Bordeaux highlights, and distribute it for free amongst the sports channels. I hope that everyone, and that includes players, sponsors and spectators, will help us to open doors.

Kozoom: What will be your next project after Bordeaux?

Xavier Carrer: We are planning to come up with initiatives that could capture the imagination, to add to the World Championship and the World Cups. Since few years, I am thinking of a Ryder Cup type of event, in our case a meeting between Europe and Asia. It will be a pure TV format event with a new dress code. But we will create excitement for the public on-site, that's the key for a nice show. It's planned for next year, later on 2018. We are in close touch with the UMB to make it real. People must be made familiar with billiards and grow to love it. And they will, believe me.