3-Cushion
HURGHADA - Who will be the challenger of Torbjörn Blomdahl, the new world champion in three cushion, in the battle for the Super Cup in Antwerp? The last World Cup this year, in the sunny Egypt resort of Hurghada, is decisive for the overall win in the cycle of six 2015 World Cups. The Spaniard Dani Sanchez is the ranking leader after five tournaments by a small margin over his main competitors Dick Jaspers and the number three Torbjörn Blomdahl.
This year's World Cup series comes to a climax from 13 to 19 December in the sea, sun and beach paradise, where hundreds of billiard players arrived to combine their sport with a holiday in previous years. The field in Hurghada, with 149 players, was again fully booked very quick this year.
Two prominent Koreans will be absent in Hurghada. Dong Koong Kang, the current number seven in the world ranking and the finalist at the World Championships in Bordeaux, has cancelled.
HaengJik Kim would make his comeback and is still among the seeded players on the list. Farouk Barki, tournament director in Hurghada, eventually has been informed that the four times junior world champion can't play due to his last weeks in military service. Kim's cancellation caused some confusion in the organization. Three emails to the Korean federation, around the closing date, were not answered. The official cancellation would have meant that Roland Forthomme would be one the seeded players list and Eddy Leppens would receive a wildcard in his place. Kim's late cancellation prevented the change. In the final qualification rounds, one more player will now advance to the main tournament.
The huge interest in three-cushion in Egypt will extend in the years ahead. Next year in December (2016) not only a new World Cup is planned, also the world championship for players under 22 will be organized near the Red Sea. The World Cup organizations in both Hurghada and Luxor, get even an apotheosis in Luxor 2018 with the organization of the individual World championship.
The new stop of the world stars and the players who regularly participate in the World Cups, with Torbjörn Blomdahl as the new world champion, follows one week after the successful World championships in Bordeaux. The Kozoom team in the southern French city may be very proud with its professional organization and the thousands of spectators in the stands at the Palais des Congrès.
The tournament was not only dominated by Torbjörn Blomdahl, who finally starred with his World title and Dong Koong Kang, the Korean star player, but also by the African coming man Sameh Sidhom. The most remarkable exponent of the Egyptian three cushion outplayed one of the famous world stars, Frédéric Caudron, in Bordeaux. He took the spotlights with the highest run and with his 19, he bested the Belgian champion Eddy Leppens . He wants to be the public fase again in his own country.
The African president Alsharif Alhussein and Farouk Barki, UMB's vice president and sports director, glistened in the Vip boxes of the World championship. Sameh Sidhom, who completed a dentist study, has strengthened his position on the top twelve of the world and seems on his way to settle his name permanently in the ranking.
Torbjörn Blomdahl has already claimed a starring role for the Super Cup and The Player of the year election, organized by Ludo Dielis in Antwerp on 5th of March 2016. The opponent that evening is the the winner of the World Cup cycle.
The World Cup in Hurghada closes the series of six in which Dick Jaspers (Luxor), Torbjörn Blomdahl (Porto), Tayfun Tasdemir (Ho Chi Minh), Dani Sánchez (Guri) and Murat Naci Coklu (Istanbul) were the winners. Dani Sánchez has taken the lead with 208 points followed by Dick Jaspers 202, Torbjörn Blomdahl 196 and Tayfun Tasdemir 174.
Marco Zanetti, as last year's winner, loses the most ranking points in Hurghada Torbjörn Blomdahl, will maintain his number one position, defending a substantial lead over Dani Sánchez, Dick Jaspers, Eddy Merckx and Tayfun Tasdemir.
The twelve seeded players in Hurghada (according to the former ranking, still with HaengJik Kim on the list):
1 Torbjörn Blomdahl (Sweden)
2 Eddy Merckx (Belgium)
3 Dick Jaspers (Netherlands)
4 Tayfun Tasdemir (Turkey)
5 Dani Sánchez (Spain)
6 Sung-Won Choi (Korea)
7 Marco Zanetti (Italy)
8 Frédéric Caudron (Belgium)
9 Jae Ho Cho (Korea)
10 Hyung Bum Hwang (Korea)
11 Haeng Jik Kim (Korea)
12 Jung Han Heo (Korea)
The wildcard players are:
Choong-Bok Lee (Korea), ACBC
Roland Forthomme (Belgium), CEB
Jose Juan Garcia (Colombia), CPB
Sameh Sidhom (Egypt), Org
Mohsen Fouda (Egypt), Org
The first rounds start on Sunday, December 13th at 11:00.
The final day is Saturday December 18th.
