3-Cushion
GURI - The little boy in the field, the youngest and most cheerful of all the Koreans in the World Cup has recovered very quickly from a the knock down at the Junior World championship. There, in the days before the start of the World Cup, Myung Woo Cho was out before the main draw. But today, in the World Cup he opened very strongly with two wins over Sang-Pil Um (30-10 in 10) and Vietnamese Ngo Dinh Nai (30-19 in 16).
Tomorrow, in the last day before the main draw, the day's best, Myung Woo Cho, is facing Sameh Sidhom and another Korean highflyer these days, Hae Myoung Jung. Moreover, it is the day of a great comeback from the four-time Junior world champion Haeng Jik Kim.
Sang-Pil Um was the number one on the previous day, but was topped now by the young Korean and thrown out of the World Cup after two days. Myung Woo Cho played the best match of the day (3.000 of average), followed by Jae Guen Kim, who dashed off his match against Spaniard Carrasco 30-10 in 11 innings.
The Turkish invasion today was more than halved (to four out of ten), because among others Birol Uymaz and Gökhan Salman could not live up to the high expectations. Can Capak was outplayed by one of the Kim's (Hyung Kon). Tolgahan Kiraz won and lost in two thrillers (twice 30-29), yet he forced the placement as the number sixteen of the ranking. Semih Sayginer, Emrullah Basegmez, Mehmet Goren and Tolghan Kiraz are in the next round. Semih spoiled one match point as his countryman Ahmed Bayatli equalized with eight from the spots. Emrullah dealt smoothly with two dangerous Koreans.
Luis Aveiga may book his forty hours trip to Ecuacor together with his young compatriot, the Pan American junior champion Manuel Lindao, after losing to Hyun Suk Kim 30-18 in sixteen innings. Vinh The Ly had a dramatic start against Hae Myoung Jung (20-1 in 5 innings), came back strong, but lacked the finishing touch (30-27).
The World Cup continues tomorrow with only men at the tables. Therese Klompenhouwer, the women's world champion, could not continue her last year's stunt in Guri (main event) and was eliminated by Spaniard Alberto Gomez Sanchez (30-25 in 18) and Mehmet Goren from Turkey 30-12 in 15. Therese travelled to Korea with a dual mission, to play the World Cup and then, next week, the Kimchi tournament with amongst others Marco Zanetti, Eddy Merckx, Frédéric Caudron and Eddy Leppens. The Korean tournament organizer and sponsor however had to remove the event from the calendar.
Jae Guen Kim was one of the excellent Koreans today with victories in eleven and eighteen innings. Ra Hee Kim escaped against Nam Guk Jang, the stuntman on Tuesday with 30 in 7. He took the match 30-29 in 15 innings. Jang then defeated Gökhan Salman (30-23 in 23) and kept his chances to win the group. Ra Hee almost lost against Salman but equalized with three.
Myung Woo Cho and Jae Guen Kim led the rankings with fabulous averages: 2.307 and 2.068. Six of the sixteen on top were Koreans, four Turks, three Vietnamese, one Spaniard, one Japanese and one Colombian, former junior world champion Jose Juan Garcia with 1.463.
Nam Guk Jang, third on the reserve, scored the best run of twelve.
Many big names are linked in the last qualification rounds:
X Semih Sayginer has to pave his to the main event against two dreaded Vietnamese: Quoc Nguyen Nguyen and Xuan Cuong Ma
X Pedro Piedrabuena and Lütfi Cenet are two players with chances for the group win
X Eddy Leppens plays with Murat Tüzül and the young Colombian Jose Juan Garcia
X Murat Naci Coklu is divided in a group with Arnim Kahofer
X The Asian champion Haeng Jik Kim bumps with Jae Guen Kim and David Martinez.
X Sameh Sidhom may get ready for the clash with Myung Woo Cho
X Choong-Bok Lee, Javier Palazón and Mehmet Goren play for the group win
Semih Sayginer meets two feared Vietnamese tomorrow
The Greek players field, which was already so minimal in recent World Cups, has to miss Nick Polychronopoulos tomorrow. The champion of his country stayed at home, because the sister of his mother has died. The Greek also did not play in the Vietnam World Cup because of his holiday and is missing valuable ranking points.
The top sixteen today:
1 Myung Woo Cho (Korea) 4-2.307-8
2 Jae Guen Kim (Korea) 4-2.068-11
3 Hyun-Suk Kim (Korea) 4-1.714-6
4 Do Nguyen Truhg Hau (Viet) 4-1.500-9
5 Hyung-Kon Kim (Korea) 4-1.500-9
6 Chi Minh Truong (Viet) 4-1.500-5
7 David Martinez (Spain) 4-1.428-8
8 Hae-Myoung Jung (Korea) 4-1.395-6
9 Mehmet Goren (Turk) 4-1.363-8
10 Emrullah Basegmez (Turk) 4-1.176-5
11 Ra Hee Kim (Korea) 3-1.666-5
12 Semih Sayginer (Turk) 3-1.500-9
13 Jose Juan Garcia (Col) 3-1.463-10
14 Atsushi Kiyota (Jap) 3-1.224-8
15 Tan Hoi Vo (Viet) 3-1.200-5
16 Tolgahan Kiraz (Turk) 2-1.180-8.
Jose Juan Garcia from Colombia
The group-format for the twelve groups of three of which the winners advance tot he main draw with three best runners-up:
Group A: Dinh Nai Ngo, Nguyen Trung Hau Do, Hyung Kon Kim
Group B: Jae Ho Cho, Hyun-Suk Kim, Chi Minh Truong
Group C: Haeng Jik Kim, Jae Guen Kim, David Martinez
Group D: Sameh Sidhom, Myung Woo Cho, Hae Myoung Jung
Group E: Choong-Bok Lee, Javier Palazón, Mehmet Goren
Group F: Quyet Chien Tran, Kostas Papakonstantinou, Emrullah Basegmez
Group G: Murat Naci Coklu, Arnim Kahofer, Ra Hee Kim
Group H: Quoc Nguyen Nguyen, Xuan Cuong Ma, Semih Sayginer
Group I: Eddy Leppens, Murat Tüzül, Jose Juan Garcia
Group J: Pedro Piedrabuena, Lütfi Cenet, Atsushi Kiyota
Group K: Chi Yeon Cho, Anh Vu Duong, Tan Hoi Vo
Group L: Hyun Min Seo, Jong Wan Kim, Tolgahan Kiraz.
The first matches at 10.00 Korean time
One of the referees in Guri