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Belgian coupe and a miraculous Jaspers

09/13/2014

Published by frits bakker

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© © Harry van Nijlen/Kozoom
The two Belgians show their joy after the reached the semifinals

PORTO - The final of the World Cup in Porto brings two Belgians in the arena that no one expected and who will battle for the victory with Dick Jaspers and Sung-Won Choi. Two heavyweights from the land of the legend Raymond Ceulemans are already out of the tournament. But instead of Frédéric Caudron and Eddy Merckx, two other Belgians, Peter Ceulemans (grandson of the all-time champion) and Roland Forthomme come to the arena for the semifinals.

The Dutch champion Dick Jaspers shared himself among the top four in a high-tension match against Vietnamese Quyet Chien Tran, that turned out into a crazy finish and sent the public at the crowded stands into raptures. Jaspers was always ten points behind, but had a powerful final shot.

Jaspers attacked with six to the end on a score of 38-34, the coldblooded Tran made his two points in the equalizer. The Dutchman then started the penalty race with a marvelous run of nine. That was enough for the win, because Tran missed after four points. Sung-Won Choi outplayed one of the other big names at the adjacent table. The Korean dominated the match against Blomdahl after the break, made the decisive gap with six in the fifteenth turn (35-27) and closed at 40-27 in 18 innins.

The two Belgians had already celebrated a small party in the Portuguese billiard room after their matches. Roland Forthomme after he had bested Murat Naci Coklu 40-33 in 23, Peter Ceulemans after beating the public face Dani Sánchez (40-25 in 21), who was the absolute star player until then.

The congenial descendant of the Ceulemans bastion showed his joy with a big smile. ,,This is the most wonderful thing I've ever done at the billiard table'', he said after the battle with Sánchez, in which he was a way ahead from the start (18-8). And after Sanchez' attack to 25-20, Ceulemans had a strong finishing touch: 40-25 in 21.

The youngest of the Belgians was rapidly forced to convert his flight back to Brussels. ,,I booked my flight back for Sunday, because who could have expected that I was still in the tournament.''

Roland Forthomme is finally back on the stage of a World Cup after his last major international success in the Volos World Cup in 2006, where he defeated Blomdahl in the final.

The first semifinal tomorrow is between the two Belgians (10.00), followed by the match between Dick Jaspers and Sung-Won Choi (11.30), the last two remaining players from the top ten in the world ranking.

Dick Jaspers will do a perfect job here in Porto. The Dutchman is hungry for success after having been a few years without an international victory. Sung-Won Choi is in a great form, as he showed two weeks ago in Korea, where he ran a 26, a new record in Korea.

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