Bordeaux, December 4th, 2015
The emotion and passion came together the way you will only see in a billiard room when Marco Zanetti is on his very best. His shout of joy went across the stands and through the arena on the last evening of qualifications at the World championship in Bordeaux when the Italian finished with a fabulous run of seven to advance to the main tournament.
The equalizing run was one of the highlights and a thing of beauty. Zanetti once again showed he has nerves of steel. He found his perfect focus and juggled the balls as if he performed in the Russian State circus.
When the fireworks had died, the Egyptian player Sameh Sidhom showed up with another fantastic match. He played Eddy Leppens and trailed 24-4 in 8 at the break, returned to the table and attacked with two runs of six and nineteen!
The top 5 players in the world have survived the group stage without too much problems. The reigning champion, Sung-Won Choi, lost his title and will make a free fall in the ranking. Dani Sánchez was the best player in the qualifications (2.222 average).
Jae Guen Kim, who beat his country man Sung Won Choi, Miguel Torres, who bested Roland Forthomme and Ruben Legazpi, a win over Hyung Bum Hwang, were the outsiders after three days of group stages. Jae Ho Cho was a bit luckier than Nikos Polychronopoulos at crunchtime and Vietnamees Xuan Cuong Ma saw pigs fly as Marco Zanetti destroyed his tournament.
Jérémy Bury was the last of the (two) Frenchmen to go out. Korean Dong Koong Kang, who finished with a run of 11, was head and shoulders too strong for the French champion: 40-12 in 18.
Three players from the current top 10 (Sung Won Choi, Roland Forthomme and Hyung Bum Hwang) will not return to the arena on Friday, when the knockout stage starts with sixteen players.
The Koreans have four guys left (of seven), the Belgians have two of the four they started with, the Turks are with two, the Dutch only have Jaspers now, the Spanish are with two and only Miguel Torres survived for the America's.
Jung Han Heo had a horrible start against Michael Nilsson and could only hope for a Korean angel on his shoulder. To advance, he needed a very short match and win over Anh Vu Duong. He got out of the blocks really well (early run of 12), and grabbed the win in his flight.
The group winners:
Group A:
1 Jae Guen Kim 4-1.509-8
Group B:
1 Torbjörn Blomdahl 4-1.538-7
Group C:
1 Eddy Merckx 4-1.702-7
Group D:
1 Dick Jaspers 4-1.904-10
Group E:
1 Tayfun Tasdemir 4-1.777-10
Group F:
1 Dani Sánchez 4-2.222-12
Group G:
1 Marco Zanetti 3-1.702-7
Group H:
1 Frédéric Caudron 4-1.777-6
Group I:
1 Jae Ho Cho 4-1.491-6
Group J:
1 Ruben Legazpi 4-1.454-8
Group K:
1 Jung Han Heo 2-1.595-12
Group L:
1 Miguel Torres 4-1.212-6
Group M:
1 Sameh Sidhom 4-1.038-19
Group N:
1 Adnan Yüksel 4-1.194-10
Group O:
1 Dong Koong Kang 4-1.739-11
Group P:
1 Quyet Chien Tran 2-1.813-9
Matches for eighth finals, Friday:
13.30:
Sánchez-Heo
Jae Guen Kim-Legazpi
Kang-Yüksel
Caudron-Sidhom
16.00:
Tasdemir-Zanetti
Merckx-Torres
Blomdahl-Cho
Jaspers-Tran.
BORDEAUX - 26/11/2015- The flying Dutchman Dick Jaspers, last week's winner in Lausanne, already said it in his preview: to win the world championship is the most glorious moment in the career of a sportsman. The history of the global tournament goes back in time with legendary names like Raymond Ceulemans, Nobuaki Kobayashi, René Vingerhoedt, Alfred Lagache (the only Frenchman to have won), the first winner Edmond Soussa from Egypt and in recent decades Torbjörn Blomdahl, Dick Jaspers and Dani Sánchez.
The Korean Sung-Won Choi wrote his name in gold last year in his own country and was added to the impressive list of winners. He is one of the exponents of the new Asian generation, of whom HaengJik Kim, four times junior world champion, is predicted a brilliant future.
Who will be the successor of Sung-Won Choi in Bordeaux, where the World championship is played from 1 to 5 December? The Palais des Congrès in the French city, famous in the world for its wines, welcomes the elite of three-cushion from Europe, Asia, America and Africa. The media company Kozoom is hosting the tournament for the first time.
The formula does not deviate from the long-standing tradition. The UMB has invited 48 players from the four confederations, divided into sixteen groups of three players. The sixteen group winners advance to the main tournament with a knock-out schedule.
Xavier Carrer, CEO of Kozoom and tournament director and his people are facing a baptism of fire after a relatively short time of preparation. His organization was awarded the world championship for two consecutive years (2015, 2016). Then, the world championship first will go to to La Paz, Bolivia (2017) and in 2018 to Luxor, Egypt. The current world champion Sung-Won Choi defends his title knowing that his ranking is under pressure. With at least a quarter-final finish he could secure his position in the top twelve. The Korean showed his high class in Lausanne with a place in the semi-finals and is close to his best form again, heading for Bordeaux.
Torbjörn Blomdahl, Dani Sánchez, Dick Jaspers, Tayfun Tasdemir and Eddy Merckx are the players with the best chances based on the ranking. Jaspers has been on his peak for some weeks now, with a victory in Lausanne, a semi-final place in the Korean LG U-plus Cup and a victory earlier this year in the World Cup in Luxor.
The Koreans have seven players in the field, including the unpredictable Dong Koong Kang. They are the best represented, followed by the Belgians with four and France, Netherlands, Turkey, Egypt and Vietnam with three players.
Three out of four confederational champions are at the start: Torbjörn Blomdahl (Europe), Huberney Catano (America) and Riad Nady (Africa). The national champions at the kick-off are Torbjörn Blomdahl (Sweden), Dani Sánchez (Spain), Tayfun Tasdemir (Turkey), Marco Zanetti (Italy), Jung Han Heo (South Korea), Eddy Leppens (Belgium), Christian Rudolph (Germany) , Ryuuji Umeda (Japan), Jean van Erp (Netherlands), Nikos Polychronopoulos (Greece), Jérémy Bury (France), Sameh Sidhom (Egypt), Arnim Kahofer (Austria) and Jan Allés (Czech Republic).
Sung-Won Choi will open the tournament on Tuesday, December 1st at 14.00 after the official opening ceremony at 13.00. When the spotlights switch on in the arena, the world's best players will lead the audience in the stands and on the live coverage of Kozoom into the fascinating game of three-cushion.
Kozoom presents a gallery of pictures at the entrance illustrating all the world champions since the start in 1928. All further information about the World championships in Bordeaux is available at www.kozoom.com/bordeaux
The sports director of the tournament is Mr. Farouk Barki, representatives of the federations are Fernando Requena (UMB), Bennie Deegens (CEB) and Jean-Paul Sinanian (French federation). The prize for the winner is 4800 euro, for the number two 3200, the numbers three receive 1600 euros.
For the World championship visitors: the airport, Bordeaux Mérignac, is twelve kilometres away from the venue. Upon request, a shuttle service is available. The train station Bordeaux St Jean is at ten kilometers, ten minutes by tramway.
UMB.