3-Cushion
PELOPONNESE - The 21-year-old Colombian Jose Garcia from the capital Bogota is the new junior world champion three cushion. He followed Korean Haeng Jik Kim, who won the title four times. The Korean and European superior power was stopped in this championship by the flamboyant Pan American champion: in the final in Peloponnese he defeated Korean Hae Chang Jung 35-17 in 20 innings.
The battle for the podium places turned out into a fight between two Koreans and two South Americans, who had dealt with the European contenders, including the European champion Omer Karakurt.
Jose Garcia, Pedro Reyes and Koreans Chang Hae Jung and Myung Woo Cho played a main role in the quarterfinals and put themselves in title picture. Myung Woo Cho already had the best start in the prelims with a match over 25 points in 12 innings. That amazing performance was not improved in the course of the tournament.
Jose Garcia is a champion, who previously was briefly discussed. The Korean federation did an attempt to inscribe Haeng Jik Kim (four-time world champion) to play his last World’s, but UMB (world federation) refused the registration, because Kim had exceeded the permitted age.
Still there was a moment doubt: Jose Garcia ( born 16 March 1992) is exactly fifteen days older than Haeng Jik Kim (born March 31, 1992), nevertheless his inscription was accepted.
When a protest threatened, UMB President Jean-Claude Dupont made the clarification: for a confederation champion, the rules make an exception:
’The World championship is strictly reserved to players having less than 21 years on September 1st of the beginning of the sportsyear (so, September 2012). Exception: the confederal champion should be less than 22 years on September 1st of te beginning of a sportsyear.’
Jose Garcia took the Pan-American title in Cali, in a final against Pedro Reyes from Ecuador and therefor is a fair and legitimate world champion. Haeng Jik Kim, unfortunately, could not win the Asian title, because there is no Asian championship organized for juniors.
The Colombian played an excellent final in Peloponnese: he balanced with his Korean opponent until the twelfth inning, but then made a gap turn in parallel with Jung , then hit a gap with a run of eight (20-13) , ran out to 33-14 in 18 and sprinted to the finish in 20 innings: 35-17 .
His fighting spirit showed Garcia already in the group matches, when he took a blistering win in his match against Portuguese Joao Ferreira by one point.
Then he defeated the favorite, Omer Karakurt in the quarters with 35-30, Myung Woo Cho 35-32 in the semis and finally he showed his tactical and moral mastery against Jung in the final.