Carom
AVCILAR - His last great individual success was in 2004, when Murat Naci Coklu as young upcoming talent won the European championships in his own country before Martin Horn and Torbjörn Blomdahl. It looked like a new Turkish star was born in the years that Semih Sayginer still triumphed in the international tournaments, but after that title a long, relative silence followed. Many of the Turkish players were impaired in their development by problems within the federation, which even meant the preliminary end of Sayginers international career.
Murat Naci Coklu (36) is on his way back now, yet not at the top, but as the number twentieth in the world. He is the manager of a club in Avcilar, not far from Istanbul, twelve kilometers from Ataturk Airport, but is also professionally involved with his sport. That status should bring him back to top twelve, he finds himself. Coklu still is one of the great exponents of a Turkish generation three-cushion players. The successes, especially with teams, are no coincidence.
They all want to play in the strong leagues outside Turkey. Lütfi Cenet, the new star, said it on Sunday, after winning the world title in Viersen, again. He would like to apply for teams in the Netherlands, France or Germany, because he wants to grow stronger by playing in the international competitions. Coklu and Tasdemir are the only players now who play regularly in the Netherlands.
The Turkish players have built up a beautiful palmares. Murat Naci Coklu and Adnan Yüksel last year became world champion for national teams in Viersen, Tayfun Tasdemir and Lütfi Cenet took the European title last year and last Sunday Tasdemir and Cenet grabbed the world title. The palmares is impressive, no other country has so many top players such as Turkey and Belgium, the country that was defeated in the finals Sunday.
Adnan Yüksel and Murat Naci Coklu were eliminated at the championship this weekend by the strong Korean team with Kyung-Roul Kim (against Yüksel) and Chung Bok Lee (against Coklu). Murat Naci got his revenge in the match therefore against Jerôme Barbeillon for his defeat in the World Cup in Hurghada, late last year. The elimination in the World Cup was very painful: Coklu made the maximum run of fifteen against the Frenchman in the second set. ,, But I played not good enough to beat Barbeillon in the two other sets. That was a big disappointment to me after the euphoria of that second set.''
Murat Naci Coklu, one and a half years ago married with Emel, who works in an electroinica company, wants to put his form further this year to make a new step on his way to the top. ,,I can look back on two years, in which I played not so good. Ik had opened my club and the business was not so good in the first period. I also had some setbacks in billiards. There were also the major problems with the federation three years ago, some of the top players stopped playing in competition, but now we can go on together, the problems are history.''
,,I hope that my stay in the Dutch league can be continued. It's a great competition, a great team and we have a wonderful audience in Lochem'', he says. For the international tournaments, I hope to play all World Cups and playing for Turkey at the world championship in Peru. The way back to the top is very long, I know, but I'm gonna work very hard.''