3-Cushion
MEDELLIN – The showdown couldn’t be better in the Medellin World Cup: a quarterfinal with Frédéric Caudron and Dick Jaspers. The classic Netherlands-Belgium in three cushion. With Torbjörn Blomdahl against Sung-Won Choi and Filippos Kasidokostas against Kyung Roul Kim.
But most of all with Eddy Leppens (nicknamed Leppie), who had the best average of all players over two matches (2.330), beat one of his major rivals, Eddy Merckx today (40-24 in 13) and for now is the only favorite of the Colombian home crowd.
The home players, including Alexander Salazar, Andres Lizarazo and Carloman Ortiz are out of the game. And Belgian Eddy Leppens makes no secret that Colombia is his second homeland. ,,The audience and the people are so great, that billiards is a pleasure to play in this atmosphere,'' says Leppens.
The level could hardly be better than in the previous round, but maybe it was even better: Frédéric Caudron won in 12 innings with an opening of nine and a final sprint of ten against Andres Lizarazo (40-17).
Dick Jaspers performed in another stunning match, facing Alexander Salazar, whom he beat with a run of twelve in the ninth inning and a 40-19 win in only thirteen innings.
The result of this round: Caudron to victory with 3.333 average, Jaspers and Leppens with 3.077 average.
Jérémy’s Bury win over Lütfi Cenet contrasted sharply. The Frenchman snatched the win in a moderate match (40-28 in 26), his Turkish opponent only woke up in the last innings with a run of eleven.
The matches at 18.00 (24.00 CET):
Blomdahl - Choi
Kasidokostas - Kim
Jaspers - Caudron
Leppens - Bury.