3-Cushion
BURSA - The 41-year-old Hamit Akkaya is an excellent Turkish billiard player, who survived the first rounds in the Bursa World Cup by four victories. He shows a strong performance, had a 1.666 peak on average and is on the third day, today, a feared opponent for Egyptian Khaled Salem and German Hamed Mohssen.
But even more, there is a very special story behind Hamit Akkaya from Eskisehir city: he is actually very sick! Hamit has been suffering from kidney impairment for years now. Akkaya has only one kidney and has to ondergo renal dialysis three times a week. Ten years ago, he got a transplant from his father, but his body rejected the organ one year after the transplantation. Renal dialysis, he realizes as a player, is a very exhausting, physically and mentally demanding process. Besides, unless there is another chance of transplantation, he knows that his time is limited.
Still he’s able to play matches on a high level. He showed up in the most World Cups in his country, outplayed amongst others the current Egyptian champion Riad Nady and Emilio Sciacca in Antalya and faced Korean Deuk-Hee Hwang, Frenchman Jean Reverchon and the Belgians Francis Forton and Peter Ceulemans in tough matches in previous World Cup appearances.
He stopped working and is practicing regularly in the club in his hometown Eskisehir. Akkaya made it to the podium of Turkish tournaments a few times when he felt healthy. He signed up for foreign World Cups, but sometimes had to cancel because of his health.
In the Bursa World Cup he started in a group with Koray Kirman (30-21 in 40) and Temel Bayramoglu (30-18 in 18) and defeated Ilhan Úrkút (30-23 in 18) and Wolfgang Wolf (30-19 in 24) on the second day. Before his start today, he was in hospital for a dialysis.
On the third day (today), a lot of strong Turkish players come tot he arena, including Savas Bulut, Tolgahan Kiraz, Emrullah Basegmez, Can Capak, Mehmet Goren, Ahmet Bayatli, Omer Karakurt, Gokhan Salman, Birol Uymaz, Ahmet Alp and Hakan Incekara.
Further to admire in today's group stage: the women's world champion Therese Klompenhouwer, Jung Ju Shin, Carlos Crespo, Kostas Papakonstantinou, Myung Woo Cho and Ngo Dinh Nai.
The matches start at 11.00 Turkish time and are broadcast live and for free by kozoom.com
