Carom
SEOUL - The great champions in three cushion are in a period of holiday, with trips to a different world. For many players these are weeks without billiards and without training sessions, but not for Frédéric Caudron, the Belgian world champion, who travels from one continent to another to play tournaments and exhibitions, such as in the Kimchi hall in Seoul, Daegu, Woolsan and Busan.
What about the champions in the summer?
We were looking around with some top players and Frédéric Caudron, Dani Sánchez and Semih Sayginer, who are touring around in Korean billiard halls these weeks in the country without borders.
For the most top ranked players these are primarily weeks of hard training in the preparation for the next major World Cups in Porto and Korea and the World championships in Korea.
The Turks are practicing very serious, as Tayfun Tasdemir reported: on training this week, he made a run of thirty, in other trainings before, Tasdemir even shone with 31, 32 and 33!! The Korean top guns are playing a ranking tournament in Incheon these days with all the best players. The top three this moment in Korea: 1 Jung Han Heo, Jae Ho Cho 2, 3 Chi Hyun Cho.
Torbjörn Blomdahl was working mainly to his physical condition ed after his spectacular victory in the Verhoeven Open in New York. The Swede, who would like to climb the famous Tourcol Alpe d'Huez, often trains on a little mountain near where he lives.
,,I do bike trips of forty kilometers in less than two hours. The mountain which I climb is five kilometers, six percent and I do it with sixteen/seventeen per hour.''
Torbjörn Blomdahl, Eddy Merckx, Frédéric Caudron and Dick Jaspers back from the tournament in New York already for a few weeks back. There is a period of rest now for most players, but not for Caudron.
He was in Belgium for a meeting with his new teammates in De Deken and now in Sweden with his parents. Blomdahl: ,,When I'm back home, I'm gonna prepare for a tournament in Anecy, where we will spend some days of holidays as well.''
The Belgian played two small tournaments in America, both of which he won, stayed for one week in Colombia before he went to New York, then a few days in Los Angeles and San Francisco and is now travelling around in Korea.
Caudron returns to Belgium on August 28, shortly before the start of the Superprestige in Lommel and the competitions in the Netherlands and Belgium.
Just a glimpse into his travel program:
July 7: off to Colombia
July 14: New York
July 21: Los Angeles
July 28: San Francisco
August 1: Belgium
August 4: Korea
August 15: Belgium
August 20: France
August 24: Italy.
Three top players pose during their stay in Kimchi:
From left to right:
Tae Soo Lim, Myung Woo Cho, Duk Jin Jang, Duck Hee Hwang, Jae Guen Kim, Jong Ryul Kim (club owner Kimchi), Young Sik Kim, Dani Sánchez, Dae Won Lee, Frédéric Caudron, Semih Sayginer, Kyung Hee Oh, Hyun Il Song, Ra Hee Kim, Jung Min Lim.
Dani Sánchez is for a few weeks guest of Kyung Hee Oh, the representative of the DS (Dani Sánchez) billiards in Korea. The Spaniard toured one week together with Semih Sayginer. They provided exhibitions and played matches, including in Daegu, Pyungtak and Suwon.
Sayginer closes his stay in Korea with a trick shot program on SBS TV and will leave on August 12 to Europe.
Dick Jaspers returned one of these days from a match with his German team Magdeburg against a Czech team, where he won two matches with two average. ,,I had some weeks in which I took my rest, but now I restarted training again.''
Eddy Leppens and Glenn Hofman stay in Colombia, where they combine holidays with demonstrations and a tournament in Bogotá.