3-Cushion
LIMA - The word championship three cushion, which starts this week (on Tuesday) in Lima (Peru) was twice before organized in the capital city of Peru in the history. Both times Raymond Ceulemans was the winner. The Peruvians had three top players in the history of three-cushion which regularly finished in the top ten. Adolfo Suárez even one time grabbed the world titel in 1961 in Amsterdam. Ramon Rodriguez is by far the best player in his country at the moment. The musical virtuoso, who has produced some wonderful CD's with his brothers and on his own and plays many instruments, finished twice on the podium in the three-cushion World championship.
Raymond Ceulemans won in Lima his fifth world title in succession in 1966. He lost only one match against Keizo Kubo, (60-54 in 53 innings), a skinny Japanese man who could make the most incredible balls. Ceulemans said in an interview in the book about the World championships stories: ,,He was a skinny, little guy: sharp as a knife. If you threw a loaf of bread at him, it would come back sliced...''
In 1979 the top of three cushion returned to Lima for the world championship. Ceulemans took his sixteenth title. The then 42-year old Belgian won all titles that year in the tournaments he participated: ten gold medals in ten tournaments.
Ramon Rodriguez, the Peruvian, is the most known player in his country in recent years. He first appeared in a major international tournament in 1995, when the World championship was played by amateurs in Grubbenvorst. Jef Philipoom took the title, the professionals played in the BWA circuit. Rodriguez finished thirteenth with 0.923 average. Four years later he was tenth in Bogota, where Frédéric Caudron won the title.
The most succesvul positions of Rodriguez were in 2002 in Randers and in 2007 in Cuenca. In both world championships he won the bronze medal. In Cuenca Rodriguez was defeated in the semifinals by Dani Sánchez.
Two other Peruvians excelled in the sixties and seventies. Adolfo Suárez and Humberto Suguimizu, an Asian with the Peruvian nationality, in thos years belonged to the participants for many years. Adolfo Suárez won the World championship in Amsterdam in 1961, when Raymond Ceulemans made his debut with a seventh place. Suarez won the tournament, Egidio Vierat from Portugal was second. Suárez finished one time as fourth in Neuss, Germany in 1963. In Lima in 1966 he was seventh.
The best position of Suguimizu was the sixth in Buenos Aires in 1972.