Eddy Merckx starts off as a whirlwind in Cali

CALI - Six Europeans, with the title holder Dick Jaspers, the world champion Eddy Merckx and the season's best Marco Zanetti, the Korean giant Kyung Roul Kim and young gun Sameh Sidhom from Egypt will compete for the medals at the World Games in Cali.

Belgian Eddy Merckx, who started off as a whirlwind amidst the exitement of a full house, was the very best of eight players in the first round of the knock-out stages with a victory over the old Nicaraguan Juan Francisco Taylor, whom he outplayed with a dramatic score: 40-4 in 11 innings.

Sameh Sidhom defeated the Colombian local hero Carlos Campino 40-18 in 22 innings.

Marco Zanetti (Italy) plays in the quarters against Christian Rudolph (Germany), Murat Naci Coklu (Turkey) against Kyung Roul Kim (South Korea), Dick Jaspers (Netherlands) vs Glenn Hofman (Netherlands) and Eddy Merckx (Belgium) vs Sameh Sidhom (Egypt). They meet today for their matches.

The entrance of Eddy Merckx at the World Games was very impressive. The Belgian, record holder best match ever with 50 caroms in 6 innings, didn't show any mercy: his opponent, the salty dog Taylor, suffered one of the most painful losses in his career. Merckx blasted away with 7, 2 and 7 (16-1 in 3 innings), stretched out to 21-2, two innings later and made a huge gap with runs of 6 and 7 in the 9th and 10th inning: 39-4.

Sameh Sidhom, with his flowing cue action, played a decent match in which he quickly took the lead and ran out to a certain win in the 17th and 18th inning with runs of six and eight: 36-13. Carlos Campino only had a little resurgence in the eighth inning with five.

Matches today:

11.00: Zanetti-Rudolph 40-21 in 25 innings.

13.30 Coklu-Kim

16.00 Jaspers-Hofman

18.30 Merckx-Sidhom