3-Cushion
VIERSEN - The first four teams for the final rounds at the World championship for national teams are the Netherlands, Belgium B, Turkey B and Austria. The decisisive matches for the other four teams are tomorrow (Saturday) as the Belgian first team, Turkey A, Germany A and Greece come to the arena for their last match This battle is far from decided: the French team, one of the strongest so far at this World’s, is hoping for a 4-0 win of the Koreans against Greece, Ecuador is a tough competitor for Turkey A and Germany A still has Peru to contend with.
In the last sessions of the second day the Spanish team was thrown out by Austria. Dani Sanchez’ starring role unfortunately will get no follow-up in this tournament. His two wins and 2.051 average showed he was an excellent leader of his team, but Rubén Legazpi wasn't a shadow of his fellow player: two losses of the second man caused the elimination by Austria.
Andreas Efler, second man behind Arnim Kahofer, was over the moon with the qualification when he decided the match against Legazpi 40-33 in 23 innings. ,,We have taken silver here once’’, Efler remembered. ,,That is really a long time ago: it's a great result for Austria that we ended up as the winner now in this tough group.’’
Jean van Erp, who had such a good start with the Netherlands already in his first match against Norway, but later had a setback, now was able to finish very strong against Riad Nady and won after two runs of eight 40-15 in eighteen innings. Therefor he is in the top of the individual ranking with two wins and 1.739 average. Dick Jaspers could easily secure the win for his country against Sameh Sidhom after a final sprint with six and 40-27 in 20.
The Belgians Eddy Leppens and Jef Philipoom still needed a strong match against Denmark with Jacob Haack Sörensen as the best man on position two. The winner of the match certainly continued, with a draw the average would decide. ,,We were very close together’’, Leppens said later. ,,But luckily Jef played a great match on the first day and made a the difference in average.’’
That helped the Belgians into the next round: Leppens bested Brian Hansen (40-33 in 26), and when he finished, Philipoom was on 33 caroms. Leppens: ,,Then we were already qualified.’’ Jacob Haack Sörensen finally won by one carom vs Philipoom who had too much miscues at the end.
In the group B with Turkey B and Japan, the average also decided. Ryuuji Umeda, the ex-world champion, played an excellent tournament with two wins and 1.600, but was, like Dani Sánchez, stopped for the final round by two losses of his second man, Hideaki Kobayashi.
The top of the individual ranking after the second day:
1 Dani Sánchez 2-4-2.051-11
2 Dick Jaspers 2-4-1.904-7
3 Jean van Erp 2-4-1.739-8
4 Marco Zanetti 2-4-1.632-11
5 Ryuuji Umeda 2-4-1.600-7
6 Jacob Haack Sörensen 2-4-1.568-13
7 Andreas Efler 2-4-1.509-5
8 Hakan Incekara 2-4-1.230-8
High scores after this day (players with two match points):
Semih Sayginer 1-2-2.857-12
Nikos Polychronopoulos 1-2-2.352-17
Jérémy Bury 2-2-2.166-14
Frédéric Caudron 1-2-1.908-9
Jef Philipoom 2-2-1.837-10
Luis Aveiga 1-2-1.818-8
The last group matches for tomorrow, Saturday:
11.00:
België A-Tsjechië
Turkije A-Ecuador
13.00:
Duitsland A-Peru
Zuid Korea A-Griekenland
The quarter finals are at 17.00 en 20.00 uur.
Andreas Efler cries out his joy after his win over Legazpi: Austria is in the next round