LIVE SCORE
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OFFICIAL RESULTS & INFORMATION
https://www.umb-carom.org/PG344L1/Union-Mondiale-de-Billard.aspx
Bogotá, March 4th 2024.
Vietnam, they say, is the most optimistic country in the world. At times, Quyet Chien Tran needed that quality. He went through the eye of the needle once or twice, but at the end of the day he held his third World Cup trophy. For Sameh Sidhom there was a third career silver medal.
If a match goes to 50 and the score board says 41 – 41, you know either player could win. It was Tran who got to 49 – 43 but he missed match point by a hair. Making seven was too big an ask for Sidhom, and Tran could finish in the next inning.
Spanish and Colombian hopes ended in the semifinal between Morales and Sidhom. Morales worked hard but the pressure was on his face and he could not get a high run on the board. The more relaxed Egyptian certainly deserved the win: 50 – 34 in 30/29.
Glenn Hofman, in his second consecutive World Cup semifinal, had a poor start against Tran. The Vietnamese had such a big lead (39 – 12) that he could afford to completely lose it for a handful of innings. Hofman’s try at a comeback was too little, too late: 50 – 35 in 27.
Tran previously won in Ho Chi Minh city (2018) and in Porto (2023). His style of play is incredibly precise, very focused on position play. He is even willing to take risks, in order to place the balls favorably. Sidhom is known for his fluency, quick decisions and good temperament. His past five or six seasons have brought him to the summit of the game: he can win tournaments.
With two non-seeded players in the semifinals, it was once again obvious that nobody is safe in modern 3-cushion.
The highest average in Bogotá was, unsurprisingly, played by Dick Jaspers: 2.352.
The best match was also played by Jaspers: 40 in 10.
The tournament high run was made by Tolgahan Kiraz: 17.
The main event average (last 32) was 1.428.
Full results are available on the UMB and Five & Six websites.
The next World Cup, number 201, will be played in May, in Ho Chi Minh City.
Bogotá, March 3rd 2024.
Sidhom defeats Jaspers in great style.
Out of the four quarterfinals, the one between Dick Jaspers and Sameh Sidhom was the best. The fluent Egyptian player brought his A-game, and was so productive that not even Jaspers could keep up. Consecutive runs of 11 and 9 gave him a big lead, and he kept it until the finish came at 50-37 in 19.
The Spanish Colombian Robinson Morales gave the crowd what they wanted: a victory over Chang Hoon Seo. Like Sidhom, Morales has grown in the last few seasons and he can now mingle with the world’s best. Seo played a wonderful tournament, but it ended with just 1 average for him: 50 – 28 in 28 to Morales.
It was more or less the same for the ever-smiling Tolgahan Kiraz. He has won many fans, but the seasoned Quyet Chien Tran was just too good: 50 – 33 in 34 to the Vietnamese. Tran had a miracle escape (50 – 49) a round earlier against 2022 world champion Tasdemir.
Glenn Hofman keeps impressing with his lethally effective game. He made the most of every chance, and ran all over Bong Joo Hwang. The Korean made some runs in the second half of the match, but it was too little, too late: 50 – 31 in 27. Hofman was responsible for the elimination of none other than Eddy Merckx a round earlier, and puts himself in another WC semifinal.
Round of 16:
Q.C. Tran – Tasdemir 50 – 49 in 30
T.L. Tran – Kiraz 39 – 50 in 32/33
Merckx – Hofman 45 – 50 in 32/33
J.T. Kim – B.J. Hwang 44 – 50 in 33
Jaspers – Polychronopoulos 50 – 44 in 26
M.J. Cha – Sidhom 44 – 50 in 43/44
Salman – R. Morales 40 – 50 in 33
C.H. Seo – Blomdahl 50 – 37 in 38
Quarterfinals
Q.C. Tran – Kiraz 50 – 33 in 34/33
Hofman – B.J. Hwang 50 31 in 27
Jaspers – Sidhom 37 – 50 in 19
R. Morales – C.H. Seo 50 – 28 in 28.
Semifinals:
Q.C. Tran – Hofman
Sidhom – R. Morales.
Watch all the matches on AfreecaTV.
Bogotá March 2nd 2024.
The Dutchman is still the best player in the world, that much was obvious on the first day of the main tournament in Bogotá, Colombia. He hasn’t won this World Cup yet, but he has sent a strong message to the rest of the field. Jaspers won his three matches in 18, 15 and 10 innings.
Let’s look at the eight groups:
A) Jaspers wins three times and averages an astronomical 2.790. Bong Jo Hwang joins him in the last 16.
B) Merckx scores a 40-40, a 40-39 and a 40-38. It says something about his nerves of steel, but there’s also a vulnerability there. Robinson Morales the second to advance.
C) Blomdahl could afford to lose his third match, but he leaves the group win to M.J. Cha. Both players are “only” in the 1.3 range.
D) Chang Hoon Seo does well with three wins, Glenn Hofman second. Myung Woo Cho, the world number one, loses three times and looks uninspired.
E) Who would have predicted this group correctly? Zanetti (loses all three) and Bury out, Salman and Kiraz advance. The two Turks truly deserved their fine result.
F) Quyet Chien Tran and Sameh Sidhom are head and shoulders better than Luis Aveiga and Daniel Moreno.
G) Jun Tae Kim never in danger, Nikos Polychronopoulos slips through on average, world champion Bao disappoints.
H) T.L. Tran group winner, Tasdemir recovers from a bad start and averages over 2, Haeng Jik Kim is out and the fairy-tale week of Tom Löwe ends.
It brings us to Saturday’s knock-out round:
Jaspers – Polychronopoulos
M.J. Cha – Sidhom
Salman – R. Morales
C.H. Seo – Blomdahl
Q.C. Tran – Tasdemir
T.L. Tran – Kiraz
Merckx – Hofman
J.T. Kim – B.J. Hwang
Sadly for the home crowd, all the Colombian players are out. No doubt there will be a lot of support for Spaniard and former Colombian Robinson Morales, a crowd favorite anyway. The Koreans have four still in the race, the Turks have three.
All matches can be viewed on AfreecaTV. Full results are available on the UMB and Five & Six websites.
Bogotá, March 1st 2024
Robinson Morales shines bright: 2.222.
Twelve group winners qualified automatically for the Bogotá main draw, and three best runners-up joined them. The best of the lot on Thursday was “home” player Robinson Morales from Colombia, who is now based in Spain. He won both his matches and averaged a very impressive 2.222.
World Cup Thursdays are not exclusively about winning. The average is important, if you want to have a chance at one of the coveted best-second spots. Hong Chiem Thai, Jeffrey Jorissen and Berkay Karakurt did well to play themselves into the last 32, even if they could not win both their matches.
Tolgahan Kiraz exploded with 25 points in his first three innings (run of 17) against Sergio Jiminez. Gökhan Salman surprised with a dominant win against Peter Ceulemans, 40-14 in 18.
The organizing country will have at least five players to (loudly) cheer for today: Robinson and Daniel Morales, Jose Juan Garcia, Daniel Moreno and Pedro Gonzalez.
Here are the group winners: (points, average, high run)
Robinson Morales 4-2.222-9
Bong Joo Hwang 4-1.600-11
Glenn Hofman 4-1.481-9
Gökhan Salman 4-1.454-11
Daniel Moreno 4-1.454-8
Nikos Polychronopoulos 4-1.403-8
Tom Löwe 4-1.290-5
Thanh Luc Tran 3-1.739-7
Jose Juan Garcia 3-1.702-9
Luis Aveiga 3-1.1.290-9
Tolgahan Kiraz 2-1.627-17
Chang Hoon Seo 2-1.604-12
Add the seeds, the wildcards, and it all results in today’s main draw:
Group A: Dick Jaspers, Berkay Karakurt, Bong Joo Hwang, Pedro Piedrabuena
Group B: Eddy Merckx, Jeffrey Jorissen, Robinson Morales, Pedro Gonzalez
Group C: Torbjörn Blomdahl, Hong Chiem Thai, Myeong Jong Cha, Daniel Morales
Group D: Myung Woo Cho, Chang Hoon Seo, Jung Han Heo, Glenn Hofman
Group E: Marco Zanetti, Jérémy Bury, Gökhan Salman, Tolgahan Kiraz
Group F: Quyet Chien Tran, Luis Aveiga, Sameh Sidhom, Daniel Moreno
Group G: Jun Tae Kim, Phuong Vinh Bao, Nikos Polychronopoulos, Jose Juan Garcia
Group H: Haeng Jik Kim, Thanh Luc Tran, Tayfun Tasdemir, Tom Löwe.
All matches can be viewed on AfreecaTV. Full results are available on the UMB and Five & Six websites.
Bogotá, February 29th 2024.
There was high-level 3-cushion wherever you looked on Wednesday in Bogotá. Manolis Minaoglu ran a 15, Daniel Moreno made 35 in 12, Hofman and again Minaoglu made 35 in 15. With so many qualifiers over 1.300, the seeded players know they’ll have to be sharp on Friday.
Local favorite Daniel Moreno found himself in one of the most interesting groups. After his exhibition win in 12 innings, he still had to battle with the seasoned Javier Vera from Mexico. That turned out to be a beautiful match from both sides, Vera the winner. Moreno squeaked through to Thursday as best number two.
An interesting encounter is in the works between the two Dutchmen from The Hague: Glenn Hofman will meet Jeffrey Jorissen, as they did in Veghel last year.
Austrian master of all disciplines Arnim Kahofer needed a win with a big difference and a high average in his second match to advance, and he did exactly that.
Here are Wednesday’s group winners: (points, average, high run)
Glenn Hofman 4-1.627-13
Tom Löwe 4-1.489-12
Huberney Cataño 4-1.458-5
Turgay Orak 4-1.400-9
Henry Diaz 4-1.372-7
Jose Juan Garcia 4-1.372-6
Manolis Minaoglu 4-1.346-15
Sergio Jimenez 4-1.320-7
Gökhan Salman 4-1.296-10
Luis Aveiga 4-0.921-6
Javier Vera 3-1.272-7
Arnim Kahofer 2-1.326-10
Ja In Kang 2-1.277-9https://www.umb-carom.org/home.aspx
Andres Naranjo 2-1.214-8
Kevin Vasseur 2-1.175-7
Sergio Hernandez 2-1.014-4
All matches can be viewed on AfreecaTV. Full results are available on the UMB and Five & Six websites.
Bogotá, February 28th 2024.
Moving on to the next round in a World Cup is no easy task. On Tuesday, a handful of the favorites to qualify for the PQ had to settle for second place in their group.
The Peruvian musician Ramon Rodriguez, the women’s world number one Therese Klompenhouwer, Greg Le Deventec and Alain Hernandez who had both played so well a day earlier, Erick Tellez from Costa Rica and Raymon Groot from New York, all well-known names in the circuit. But their tournament ended yesterday. The strong veteran from Ecuador, Luis Aveiga, had a miracle escape against Dutchman Reggy Brouwers, so he will return tomorrow.
There was wonderful play from Sergio Jimenez from Spain, Thanh Tien Le from Vietnam and Daniel Moreno from Colombia. They lead today’s winner’s list:
Sergio Jimenez 4 – 1.764 – 6
Thanh Tien Le – 4 – 1.666 – 11
Daniel Moreno – 4 – 1.666 – 7
Viet Hoang Minh Thon – 4 – 1.428 – 8
Ahmet Koseoglu – 4 – 1.395 – 6
Julian Morales – 4 – 1.304 – 6
Sergio Hernandez – 4 – 1.153 – 8
Andres F Naranjo – 4 – 1.132 – 6
Jhon Fredy Martinez – 4 – 1.016 – 5
Andres Lizarazo – 4 – 0.983 – 5
Cesar Garzon – 4 – 0.967 – 4
Manolis Minaoglu – 4 – 0.882 – 6
Vangelis Moulos – 4 – 0.869 – 7
Luis Aveiga – 3 – 1.250 – 5
Alexander Munoz – 3 – 1.000 – 8
Tom Löwe – 2 – 1.180 – 8
All matches can be viewed on Afreeca TV. Full results are available on the UMB and Five & Six websites.
Bogotá, February 27th 2024
With the majority of the PPPQ group winners over 1.000 average on day 1, the Bogotá World Cup started on a high level. Alain Hernandez was the best of the lot, with two wins and 1.538.
Many South-American players must have looked forward to this event for months. It gives them a chance to play on the World Cup level without having to travel to Asia or Europe. The host country, Colombia, has become a 3-cushion powerhouse, as was demonstrated not long ago in the Viersen World Championships for National teams.
The arena in Bogotá is impressive. If it will indeed be filled with spectators on the closing days, we can expect a true South-American atmosphere with boisterous enthusiasm. These fans love to make themselves heard.
Not in all the World Cups anymore, but present in Bogotá: the women’s world number one Therese Klompenhouwer. She would love to reach a WC main draw, but that’s not an easy task.
Here are the group winners from day one: (points, average, high run)
Alain Hernandez 4-1.538-5
Henry Diaz 4-1.500-8
Cesar Garzon 4-1.395-7
Jhon Fredy Martinez 4-1.176-7
Alexander Munoz 4-1.176-5
Julian Torres 4-1.176-5
Luis Aveiga 4-1.153-7
Sergio Hernandez 4-1.153-6
Daniel Moreno 4-1.132-7
Julian Morales 4-1.111-6
Pablo Ocampo 4-1.016-6
Gregory Le Deventec 4-0.983-6
Andres Lizarazo 4-0.937-4
Andres Naranjo 4-0.789-5
Saltiago Martinez 4-0.625-5
Diego Lopez 3-1.034-7
All matches can be viewed on Afreeca TV. Full results can be checked on the UMB and Five & Six web pages.
Bogotá, February 22th , 2024
Bogotá 2024 is off to a promising start.
What a wonderful moment in 3-cushion history, and a major jubilee: the 200th World Cup will be played from 26 February – 3 March 2024 in Bogotá, Colombia.
The WC history of our sport started in 1986, when the first ever event of this kind was played in Paris and Raymond Ceulemans was the winner. Hurghada 2004 was WC #100, with Dani Sánchez on top of the podium, and now there is #200 in Bogotá. Who will claim this extra-special prize?
This will be the fifth WC in Colombia (1998, 2000, 2001, 2013, 2024), one played in Medellin, the other four in Bogotá.
he UMB has seeded the following players: Jaspers, Merckx, Blomdahl, M.W. Cho, Zanetti, Tran, J.T. Kim, H.J. Kim, Horn, Tasdemir, P.V. Bao, Sidhom, Bury, J.H. Heo. The wildcards went to Pedro Gonzales and Daniel Morales (local) and Pedro Piedrabuena (CPB/UMB).
The matches will be played on Jimar Billiards with ClassOne B2 Black cloth and Dynaspheres balls. At stake are 80 – 54 – 36 – 26 – 18 – 10 – 8 ranking points and the prize money that is standard for World Cups. All UMB rules apply.
As all billiard insiders know, there is an abundance of 3C talent in South-America. But some (or many) of these players, through no fault of their own, have difficulty travelling to European or Asian World Cups. Now we are on their turf, and it will no doubt be a joy to see fresh faces at the table. Hopefully the Bogotá WC can be a breakthrough moment for a few of them.
All matches can be viewed on Afreeca TV. Results will be published daily on the websites of Five & Six and the UMB.
