3-Cushion
GURI - Can the young French world champion Adrien Tachoire stop a Korean gold rush for the second time in two years, tomorrow at the final day of the world junior championship? It seems almost impossible, as Tachoire is handicapped by the loss of his luggage and cue during the flight to Korea. On top of that, he is in the semifinals with three exponents of the Korean talent schools.
His opponents have so far all done better in terms of averages and high runs. The Frenchman, who will turn twenty in three days, will have to pull something out of a hat in order to retain his title in the Guri gymnasium. Jun-Tae Kim (20), Jung-Ju Shin (20) and Tae-Kwan Kim (18) will use all their abilities to prevent it.
So again the final day of the championship will be Korean dominated, with just the one Frenchman Adrien Tachoire as a possible foreign winner. The one European did not have a particularly good season, because he has found a steady job in a bicycle store and consequently cut down on his practice hours.
The Koreans, with Jun Tae Kim and Jung Ju Shin in college and Tae-Kwan Kim doing a bachelor studies, will no doubt have had better facilities to prepare for this world championship, even if Tae-Kwan Kim was only a substitute in the field.
He was the fifth in the Korean selection of five players, of those Myungwoo Cho head and shoulders the best (1.647). What nobody expected happened at this WC: the 17-year old prodigy was eliminated in the group stage, with two losses and a draw. Tae-Kwan Kim was fifth and last with 1.245, but he made a beautiful run of seventeen.
The WC substitute sent one of the title favorites home in the quarterfinals. He went neck and neck with Berkay Karakurt until the break (18-17), then attacked to make it 23-17 and 27-19. In the home stretch the Turk came back with a run of six (32-32), but Tae-Kwan Kim crossed the finish line at 35-32 in 24 innings. Karakurt made the breakoff but missed his second: a round-the-table that carre'd out of the corner and missed the third ball by a hair.
Jun Tae Kim beat the guy who shone in the earlier round: Japanese Yusuke Mori, who won his previous match in ten innings, but is too inconsistent to score in every match. Jun Tae Kim decided the encounter with a run of nine in the fifteenth inning, to win 35-22 in 35.
Jung Ju Shin
Jung Ju Shin ran away from Austrian Patrick Butora (11-0) and never looked back: 35-21 in 23 innings.
Adrien Tachoire won the all-French clash with Matthieu Franck, who could not make it a contest. Tachoire went from 24-16 to 31-17, 33-22 and finished at 35-22 in 45 innings.
Can Adrien Tachoire produce another upset at the WC on Saturday?
The prospects for the semifinals?
Adrien Tachoire (who had 35 in 45 in the quarters) needs a minor miracle against Jun Tae Kim (who made 35 in 21). Jung Ju Shin and Tae Kwan Kim face each other in the other semi, the result of which is anybody's guess.
Tachoire and Jun Tae Kim will play tomorrow, Saturday at 13.00 Korean time, Shin and Tae Kwan Kim are scheduled for 15.00 uur.
The final is at 18.00 uur.
All matches are live on Kozoom.
Adrien Tachoire
Tae-Kwan Kim
