24 teams for World championship in Viersen

VIERSEN - The Belgians Eddy Merckx and Frédéric Caudron defend the world title for nation teams at the World championship from 26 February to 1 March in the Festhalle in Viersen. The world federation UMB announced the participating teams today. For the first time after its suspension Colombia is one of the 24 teams.

The Belgians, Koreans and Germans come to the start with two teams. The main challengers for the golden Belgian couple are the Germans Martin Horn and Christian Rudolph, Torbjörn Blomdahl and Michael Nilsson for Sweden, the Belgium B team with Eddy Leppens and Roland Forthomme, Spain with Dani Sánchez and Ruben Legazpi, the Netherlands with Dick Jaspers and Barry van Beers, Turkey with Tayfun Tasdemir and Adnan Yüksel and Korea A with Jae Ho Cho, Jung Han Heo. The Korean world champion Sung-Won Choi is not on the players list.

The World championship for nation teams is organized since 1981. In the first two editions, the Japanese duo Kobayashi-Komori was the winner.

Torbjörn Blomdahl, who won twice before with his father Lennart, won for the first time with Michael Nilsson in 2000. The successful Swedish twosome triumphed even five times in a row between 2005 and 2009.

The participating teams and countries:

1 Belgium A: Eddy Merckx and Frédéric Caudron
2 Germany A: Martin Horn, Christian Rudolph
3 Netherlands: Dick Jaspers, Barry Beers
4 Greece: Nikos Polychronopoulos, Dionisis Tsokontas
5 Spain: Dani Sánchez, Ruben Legazpi
6 Turkey: Tayfun Tasdemir, Adnan Yüksel
7 France: Jérémy Bury, Jean-Christophe Roux
8 Czech Republic: Martin Bohac, Radek Novak
9 Luxembourg: Ramon Hamm, Paul Mootz
10 Sweden: Torbjörn Blomdahl, Michael Nilsson
11 Switzerland: Behzat Cetin, Pierre Alain Rech
12 Portugal: Rui Costa, Joao Ferreira
13 Danmark: Tonny Carlsen, Brian Hansen
14 Austria: Andreas Efler, Herbert Szivacz
15 Italy: Marco Zanetti, Salvatore Papa
16 Belgium B: Eddy Leppens, Roland Forthomme
17 Germany B: Stefan Galla, Ronny Lindemann
18 Peru: Ramon Rodriguez, Guido Sacco
19 Ecuador: Luis Aveiga Javier Teran
20 Colombia: Heriberto Aristizabal, Gabriel Vasquez
21 Korea A: Jung Han Heo, Jae Ho Cho
22 Japan: Tatsuo Arai, Tobuyuki Tanabe
23 Korea B: Chi Yeon Cho, Hyung Kon Kim
24 Egypt: Sameh Sidhom, Riad Nadi.