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Olympic hall is ready to welcome the world's best

25/11/2014

Publié par frits bakker

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© © Kozoom
The billiard room for the World championship in Seoul is prepared for the start

SEOUL - The Japanese Tatsuo Arai, the Austrian Arnim Kahofer and the American Pedro Piedrabuena, three of the eight players at the World championship in Seoul, will light the torch on Wednesday (Korean time 14.00, European time 6:00 in the morning) to launch the tournament in the Olympic Stadium. The Gymnastics House (Jasmil stadium) is ready for a new global battle. The question in advance: can this World championship in South Korea, with its huge billiards culture, equal or surpass the previous edition in the Antwerp Lotto hall. The Belgians, led by Ludo Dielis, filled the arena five days long with a few thousand spectators.

Which are also expected in the Korean metropolis. Seven Koreans, of which four of whom are in the top twelve of the world, start a dream mission: bring the world title for the first time in the history of three cushion to South Korea.

The main contenders are Jung Han Heo, winner of three of the last four tournaments in his country, Jae Ho Cho, who played a great World Cup in Guri and Sung-Won Choi. The insiders in the Korean billiards don't think that Kyung-Roul Kim is not one of the favorites, because he is too busy with the few billiard halls he owns. Therefor he has less time for practice.

Seven players from the top twelve had a nice warm-up at the Lausanne Masters this weekend. Zanetti presented himself, quite unexpectedly, as one of the contenders and most of all Frédéric Caudron, Torbjörn Blomdahl, Dick Jaspers, Dani Sánchez and Jérémy Bury showed the form in which they travel to the World championship.

On the opening day (Wednesday), the players in the top twelve don't come to the tables. The players for the first session are, except Arai, Piedrabuena and Kahofer the Frenchman Jérôme Barbeillon, the Vietnamese Xuan Cuong Ma, Kostas Papakonstantinou from Greece, Luis Aveiga from Ecuador and Tolgahan Kiraz from Turkey.

The first day is reserved for 32 players in 12 groups of three. The sixteen losers from these matches meet the seeded players in the next round, followed by the winners of the first day's matches.

That schedule leads to the eighth-finals on Saturday, followed by the quarterfinals (also on Saturdays), the semi-finals and final on Sunday.

The groups and the first matches are:

Group A:
Frédéric Caudron (Bel), Tatsuo Arai (Jap) and Jérôme Barbeillon (Fra).

Group B:
Torbjörn Blomdahl (Swe), Kostas Papakonstatinou (Gri), Xuan Cuong Ma (Viet).

Group C:
Dick Jaspers (Neth), Arnim Kahofer (Aus), Luis Aveiga (Ecu).

Group D:
Filipos Kasidokostas (Gr), Pedro Piedrabuena (USA), Tolgahan Kiraz (Tur).

Group E:
Sung-Won Choi (Kor), Ramon Rodriguez (Peru), Antoine Gholam (Lux).

Group F:
Eddy Merckx (Bel), Javier Teran (Ecu), Guido Sacco (Peru).

Group G:
Marco Zanetti (It), Nguyen Quoc Nguyen (Viet), Tonny Carlsen (Dan).

Group H:
Kyung-Roul Kim (Kor), Huberney Catano (Col), Martin Bohac (Cze).

Group I:
Dong Koong Kang (Kor), Ruben Legazpi (Sp), Glenn Hoffman (Neth).

Group J:
Jae Ho Cho (Kor), Henry Diaz (Col), Christos Christodoulidis (Ger).

Group K:
Tayfun Tasdemir (Tur), Sameh Sidhom (Egy), Chi Yeon Cho (Kor).

Group L:
Dani Sánchez (Sp), Christian Rudolph (Ger), Kuji Funaki (Jap).

Group M:
Jérémy Bury (Fra), Jung Han Heo (Kor), Cetin Behzat (Swi).

Group N:
Roland Forthomme (Bel), Eddy Leppens (Bel), Hyun Min Seo (Kor).

Group D:
Nikos Polychronopoulos (Gr), Jean Paul de Bruijn (Neth), Mohsen Fouda (Egy).

Group P:
Quyet Chien Tran (Viet), Choong-Bok Lee (Kor), Juan Pablo Sisterna (Arg).

The first matches:

Korean time (European time eight hours earlier):

14.00:
Arai-Barbeillon
Papakonstantinou-Ma
Kahofer-Aveiga
Piedrabuena-Kiraz.

16.00:
Rodriguez-Gholam
Teran-Sacco
Nguyen-Carlsen
Catano-Bohac.

18.00:
Legazpi-Hofman
Diaz-Christodoulidis
Sidhom-Chi Yeon Cho
Rudolph-Funaki.

20.00:
Heo-Behzat
Forthomme-Leppens
De Bruijn-Fouda
Lee-Sisterna.

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