3-Cushion
SEOUL - Torbjörn Blomdahl is the player from the current generation with the most world titles in three cushion on his honor list. The Swede could not win the World championship since 1997 in Grubbenvorst, although he was never out of the top three. But anyway, he heads the list with four titles. He took his first world title in 1987 in Cairo, shortly after the reign of Raymond Ceulemans, who won two more titles in his last period. Torbjörn Blomdahl won his other gold medals in 1988 (as the leader after six World Cups), in 1991 in Tokyo (after five World Cups) and in 1997 after the regular World championship in Grubbenvorst.
Besides those four world titles, the Swede was six times second at a World championship, what makes him the most successful World champion player of this generation. He is followed by Dani Sánchez and Dick Jaspers with three wins, Eddy Merckx, Marco Zanetti and Frédéric Caudron with two world titles.
The players who conquered one world title since Blomdahl's first win in 1987 were Ludo Dielis (Yokohama, 1989), Rini van Bracht (Aalborg, 1994), Jef Philipoom (Grubbenvorst, 1995), Christian Rudolph (Hattingen, 1996), Semih Sayginer (Valladolid , 2003), Ryujji Umeda (Cuenca, 2007) and Filippos Kasidokostas (2009, Lausanne).
Raymond Ceulemans is, of course, by far the best with his record list of world titles. The Belgian superstar crowned world champion 21 times in his career crowned world champion, eleven times in a row between 1963 and 1973 and after a stopover of one year (Kobayashi in 1974, Antwerp) again six times in a row.
Finally, Ceulemans won four times: in 1983, 1985, 1990 and (very surprising in his last years of competition) in 2001 in Luxembourg.
The years in which Raymond Ceulemans was superior in three cushion are obviously not comparable to the current era. The competition is much bigger now and it's inconceivable that one player would win as many consecutive world titles.
The ranking of world champions with the players at the start of this World championship in Seoul:
1 Torbjörn Blomdahl: 4
2 Dani Sánchez and Dick Jaspers: 3
4 Eddy Merckx, Marco Zanetti and Frédéric Caudron: 2
7 Filipos Kasidokostas, Christian Rudolph: 1.