Carom
BRUSSELS - The first ranking tournament in Belgium is won by Eddy Leppens. He defeated in the final Roland Forthomme and had reached the semifinals against Frédéric Caudron. The tournament was organized by CRB Leopold in Brussels and was the first of four ranking tournaments that must lead to the Superprestige in Lommel. The other three tournaments are in Bruges, Eeklo and Lier.
Eddy Leppens dominated the final against Forthomme from the first innings and kept his opponent at the finish line far behind: 40-20 in sixteen innings. Leppens is the first leader in the ranking. Eddy Merckx was eliminated in an earlier stage by Steven van Acker 40-30 in 30 innings.
In the semifinals Eddy Leppens and Frédéric Caudron met each other and played Roland Forthomme against Steven van Acker. Caudron and Leppens were in balance until the final stage, then Leppens attacked with runs of ten and nine to 40-28 in 22.
Roland Forthomme and Steven Acker came together to the finish (40-40 in 26). Penalty shots were required to come to a winner: the first series ended in 2-2, then Forthomme won 2-1.
Eddy Leppens paved his way to the final phase including wins against Marco Janssen (40-10 in 34) and Francis Forton (40-30 in 20). Roland Forthomme defeated in an early stage Peter Ceulemans 40-29 in 26. Frédéric Caudron sparkled against Kurt Ceulemans (40-26 in 19) and Sven Orshaegen (40-15 in 14, 2.857 average).