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Eddy Merckx fantastic triumphator in Korea

10/12/2014

Published by frits bakker

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© © Harry van Nijlen/Kozoom
Eddy Merckx after his triumph with congratulations of Frédéric Caudron.

GURI - The new world of three-cushion was watching admiringly the two figureheads from the old world. Frédéric Caudron and Eddy Merckx, the successors of the eternal legend Raymond Ceulemans, faced each other in the final after a long marathon of matches in the arena of the magnificent World Cup in Guri. The winner was Eddy Merckx, who ran away from his opponent after the break: 40-22 in 16. The proud World Cup winner commented after the final match: ,,It was wonderful to win here, with that fantastic crowd. And especially with two Belgians in the final. It felt like there were two Koreans in the finala at the World championships in Antwerp.''

The World Cup victory in Guri was for Merckx the fifth in his career after Hurghada (2013), Trabzon (2011), Porto (2009) and Barendrecht (2005). He overtook Sung-Won Choi, Filipos Kasidokostas and Dick Jaspers in the world ranking and climbed up to third place behind Frédéric Caudron and Torbjörn Blomdahl.

Eddy Merckx: ,,I can say that every World Cup win is a great experience, but most of all in this atomosphere. That makes it even more fantastic to win here. And after Aveiga and Alp, win against Jaspers, Blomdhal and Caudron in a row, was also very special. I'm happy with my overall average, around two, but you need that level to win a World Cup now.''

He forced the victory in the final just before the break, after Caudron had a gorgeous start with nine from the break. Merckx already answered with eight in the second and ran with nine to a 24-17 score before the break.

The second half of the game was a Merckx one-man show. He slowly demolished his opponent, who lost his rhythm and only came up with one's and two's in the score. The result was that Caudron scored only thirteen caroms in sixteen innings after his tremendous break-off.

Merckx finished with 2.312 average, Caudron was left with 1.375, well below his standards.

The world champion and number one in the rankings seemed after his stunning tournament start on his way to his tenth World Cup victory: he won, after Seville in 2004 and Mexico and Corfu in 2007 every year one World Cup so far: Sluiskil (2008), Sluiskil (2009), Matosonhis (2010), Vienna (2011), Hurghada (2012), Medellin (2013) and Luxor (2014).

For his tenth victory, he has to wait for the next edition, because despite his supremacy in the previous matches, he could not live up to the favorite role in the final.

Eddy Merckx did it in his own way and therefor confirmed his reputation. This year's Belgian champion is always at his best when he threatens to drop from the top of the world. Now, with his eighty points in this World Cup, he shared himself among the top three again.

The Belgians may be proud of that. They remain on top, dominating the world rankings with their two world class players, despite the force of the progression of three cushion in the World Cups and the threat from the Asian countries.

The doors of the World Cup in Guri, where long rows of spectators thronged to see the final, were closed after seven days of billiards on a level that was rarely seen. The Koreans demonstrated their class in the preliminary rounds, like the Vietnamese, Turks and of course also Therese Klompenhouwer, the first female player who played herself in a major tournament. She was applauded exuberantly with her performance.

It was the tournament where Jae Ho Cho elevated his status with the best match (10 innings), a run of 14, which was later only surpassed by Dick Jaspers (15). The small Korean was outplayed by Torbjörn Blomdahl, in a match which was one of the highlights of the tournament, decided from the penalty spots.

Torbjörn Blomdahl was one of the great luminaries again, until the semifinals, where he tumbled over Eddy Merckx. And Nguyen Quoc Nguyen, the Vietnamese coming man, was the crowd favorite with a place in the semifinals, where he was eliminated by Frédéric Caudron, but even then showed his infectious laughter to the audience.

The top twelve of the world only changes at the top, where Frédéric Caudron and Torbjörn Blomdahl remain the leaders, Eddy Merckx entered the top three and Dick Jaspers, Filipos Kasidokostas and Sung-Won Choi dropped one place.

Dani Sánchez remains on twelve despite an early exit, just behind Tayfun Tasdemir. Jae Ho Cho is after his tremendous performance on the tenth position.

The incredibly strong fighter Merckx had a few minor weeks in the leagues, but more than ever he demonstrated in this World Cup in Korea that he is one of the absolute world class players on the highest podium.

The final ranking:

1 Eddy Merckx 1.980

2 Frédéric Caudron 2.091

3 Torbjörn Blomdahl 2.264

3 Quoc Nguyen Nguyen 1.923

5 Jae Ho Cho 2.926

6 Dick Jaspers 1.573

7 Dong Koong Kang 1.534

8 Jérémy Bury 1.500

9 Roland Forthomme 2.085

10 Lütfi Cenet 2.051

11 Murat Naci Coklu 2.000.

 

The new world ranking:

 

1) Frédéric Caudron 485

 

2) Torbjörn Blomdahl 342

 

3) Eddy Merckx 316

 

4) Dick Jaspers 311

 

5) Filippos Kasidokostas 289

 

6) Sung Won Choï 277

 

7) Marco Zanetti 253

 

8) Dong Koong Kang 251

 

9) Kyung Roul Kim 244

 

10) Jae Ho Cho 241

 

11) Tayfun Tasdemir 222

 

12) Dani Sanchez 208

 

13) Jérémy Bury 176

 

14) Roland Forthomme 173

 

15) Tran Quyet Chien 170

 

16) Nikos Polychronopoulos 170

 

17) Choong Bok Lee 158

 

18) Murat Naci Coklu 155

 

19) Jean-Paul de Bruijn 138

 

20) Lütfi Cenet 131

 

21) Nguyen Quoc Nguyen 124


 

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