3-Cushion
MEDELLIN – He stood on the rostrum of a World Cup once, two years ago in Hurghada. There are many other medals on his resume though, three of those bronze, won on a World Championship. The 43-year old allrounder has chased a top-12 position for many year s already, but now he seems to be ready for the jump.
Two days on the World Cup in Medellin made it clear how focused Leppens was on this tournament. He started off with a win over Luis Martinez (40 in 20), then took care of none other than Eddy Merckx (40 in 13) and confirmed his aspirations with a clearcut victory over Jérémy Bury (40-26 in 15).
Filippos Kasidokostas, Frédéric Caudron and Torbjörn Blomdahl may have looked impressive in this round of 8, but it was Eddy Leppens who was head and shoulders the best of the four remaining candidates for gold.
His average over three matches is even close to the world record recently set by Torbjörn Blomdahl in the World Cup in Greece (2.739). No less awesome was his start in the quarterfinal match: a fifteen from the break, against Bury.
Today, saturday, there is another tough fight awaiting him: he will face Frédéric Caudron, the world champion. That is the man with whom he has fought so many battles already, but who usually gets the better of him.
The question is: can he stand up to his eternal nemesis this time? Caudron has so far played this World Cup the way he played in Antwerp: like a master, in all of his matches.
Dick Jaspers did threaten the world nr. 1 for a while, even took a lead (31-27, 28-35), but in the end Caudron was merciless, with runs of six and three in the innings that mattered, the 19th and 20th.
Filippos Kasidokostas was also in a hard battle, with Kyung Roul Kim. The Korean was out of the blocks with five and eight (13-7 in 2), kept his nose in front until the 14th inning, but then te Greek stormed past him and never looked back.
The other Korean, Sung-Won Choi, had apparently given his all in the previous match (against Jae Ho Cho). Torbjörn Blomdahl gave his opponent some wriggling room as he gathered steam, but then walked all over him in the second half: 40-23 in 22 innings.
The semifinal line-up for today:
Frédéric Caudron-Eddy Leppens
Torbjörn Blomdahl-Filippos Kasidokostas.