3-Cushion
GURI - He will never forget that one and only glorious highlight in his career. The Korean Sang-Pil Um was an almost unknown payer when he came to the Suwon World Cup in 2012, where he survived four rounds, defeated Roland Forthomme, then Kyung-Roul Kim in the main event and was only outplayed by the Dutchman Raimond Burgman. The stuntman in that year has never been in a glorious role in his later performances. But watch out, Sang-Pil Um is back on a mission, as he showed on the second day of the preliminaries at the Guri World Cup. He finished on top of the day ranking with four match points and 1.538 average. His opponents for the next round, young Myung Woo Cho and the Vietnamese Ngo Dinh Nai are warned.
The most wonderful revenge on the second day of the World Cup: the Korean Nam Guk Jang lost in his first match against Ha Tae Woo almost without any chance: 30-19 in 14, in the next he returned in the arena for a world class match against the stunned Swede Nalle Olsson: 30-8.
Thirty caroms in seven innings, two runs of ten and 4.285 of average. These are matches to added to the record books. Nam Guk Jang could not make up for what he had lost in his first match. He finished second after Ha Tae Woo (1.428), but escaped at the end of the day still from the elimination.
Two reserve players may show up in the next rounds with the sixteen group winners. Tan Hoi Vo from Vietnam was the first with three match points and 0.740 (!), Jang Guk Nam the second with two points and 2.333. The numbers three to five, Irhan Ürküt, 1.540, Pham Quoc Thuan, 1.475 and Seung Yong Kang, 1.400 are out of the game.
The better Europeans entered the tournament with three Spaniards in the top sixteen: David Martinez, Jose Antonio Carrasco and Alberto Gomez Sanchez. Juan David Zapata was down and out, like Jun Tae Kim, finalist at the Junior World championship, Japanese O Takeshima, who is a distant shadow of the player he was when he made his entrance and Yusuki Mori, the Japanese talent with all his highs and lows.
Sang-Pil Um finished winner of the day ahead of Hyun-Suk Kim, Quang Hao Truong, Joong Wan Lim and Can Capak.
Can Capak finished in the top five
Yusuke Mori in his match against Juan David Zapata: both young players are out
The number one from the first day, Sung Yoon Jung, who played a wonderful 2.400, was far away from that average now: 0.965. Nalle Olsson recovered with a draw after his kick down by Jang and Jorge Bastos and Wiet Kaethoven, two very sympathetic tourists, closed the ranksing and can slight look for a nice seat in the bar to wait for the big guns.
The top sixteen (match points, average series):
1 Sang-Pil Um 4-1.538-7
2 Hyun-Suk Kim 4-1.395-8
3 Quang Hao Truong 4-1.333-7
4 Jeong Wan Lim 4-1.304-7
5 Can Capak 4-1.304-6
6 David Martinez 4-1.276-5
7 Jose Antonio Carrasco 4-1.276-5
8 Nironori Nakajima 4-1.250-9
9 Hae Myoung Jung 4-1.250-5
10 Bo Gustavsson 4-1.200-5
11 Jun Hyuk Im 4-1.090-4
12 Chi Minh Truong 4-0.821-6
13 Jong Wan Kim 3-1.538-8
14 Tae Ha Woo 3-1.428-6
15 Ra Hee Kim 3-1.034-6
16 Alberto Gomez Sanchez 3-0.937-5.
Bo Gustavsson, one of the Europeans in top sixteen
Sung Yoon Jung, the best on the first day, is out of the game
Nam Guk Jang started with a loss and continued with a world match: 30 in 7.