Dani Sánchez is in, Blomdahl is out

ANTWERP - Two Belgian competitors showed their great form on the day that the World championship witnessed its first big name victims. Torbjörn Blomdahl, the world’s number one, was eliminated in the preliminaries. The Swede finished second behind Javier Teran and must wait another year should after he won his last world title in Grubbenvorst (1997).

Jérémy Bury, fourth in the world, was already under great pressure due to the draw in his first match against Michael Lohse. The Frenchman could only survive by beating Korean Jung Han Heo, but stumbled just before the finish in his thrilling final innings: 40-39 in 29.

The Belgians Eddy Merckx and Frédéric Caudron were the show masters in the first round of the last qualification, with sixteen and nineteen inning matches. They entertained their own, Antwerp public with two high class performances.

Dani Sánchez, really focused because he had to win, Marco Zanetti, still in a gorgeous form and Dick Jaspers were among less than the twenty inning matches, which underlined the rising level.

Eddy Merckx had a superb start against Dinh Nai Ngo with 21 caroms in three innings (6, 6 and 9) and won 40-14 in 16. Frédéric Caudron started modestly, but had a superior finish against Barbeillon (40-13 in 19).

Marco Zanetti faced the Belgian former world champion Jef Philipoom, strongly encouraged by his fans. The Italian had a  flawless finish when the score was still in balance. He won 40-33 in 18. It was the only match with some tension in the second day session.

Dani Sánchez said for the Kozoom cameras that his preparation was very poor because of his business. ,,I’ve only practiced, to be honest, on the day before the start.’’ The Spaniard had a bad start against Arnim Kahofer, had to win his second against Kouji Funaki in 32 innings and made a demonstration of his match: 40-15 in 15.

He was one of the top three players in the match averages, behind Dong Koong Kang with 7 and Marco Zanetti with 14 innings.

Eddy Merckx (4 points, 1.600), Javier Teran (2 points, 1.090) , Frédéric Caudron (4 points, 1.777), Jung Han Heo (4 points, 1.428) , Marco Zanetti (4 points, 2.500) , Dani Sánchez (2 points, 1.789), Dick Jaspers (4 points, 1.739) and Sung-Won Choi (4 points, 1.632) are the first eight players who qualified for the quarter finals.