Who still knows this guy: Dae-Kwon Shin?

SEOUL - He was unknown and not recognized in the World Cups. The 38-year-old Korean Dae-Kwon Shin, anonymous in the bunch of Korean billiard players. On a sultry day in August, at the World Cup in Ho Chi Minh, when he was outside Korea for the first time, Shin faced the famous Dick Jaspers after he survived the pre-rounds. The current Dutch world champion was on one's guard, played sharp and focused, but Dae-Kwon Shin showed himself a champion killer. The match ended at 40-40 in 13 innings, Shin won the shoot-out, as Jaspers missed the break.

Dae-Kwon Shin wrote a bit of history that day, even though he was eliminated in the second round of the main draw by Tayfun Tasdemir 40-37 in 27. And later, it never came to a breakthrough. He played a few more World Cups in Korea, but never entered the main event again. That will not happen again, at the World Cup in Seoul. Dae-Kwon Shin started as an up-and-down player again. He made the best run of the day (14), but was two points down to Min-Soo Go at the finish. Then he scored another 9 in the game he won against Turk Fatih Korkmaz, but the elimination was inevitable. Dae-Kwon Shin was only the third reserve on the first day and will not return to the tournament tomorrow, Tuesday.

Three Koreans led the ranking in a winners' group with a total of eight Koreans, six Vietnamese, a Japanese and a Colombian. Young Seob Kim was the best winner ahead of Sang-Woon Ko and Keon Hwi Cho. Japanese Shouta Funaki, son of Kouji Funaki, was one of the foreign players, Mauricio Aguilar, a Colombian, was the player who undoubtedly came from the country furthest from Guri.

Daehyeon Jang, a Korean as well, who nearly missed the qualification for the second day, played to a 1.575 of average, the best of 48 players on the opening day, but he lost one match to Young Seob Kim 30-22 in 18 innings. The victory in his second match was great: 30-8 in 15 against Hong Phuong Thai. Jang was the best runner-up, facing in the next round Mai Ishi from Japan and Van Ly Dao from Vietnam.

The sixteen winners on day one:

1 Young Seob Kim 4-1.395-8
2 Sang-WoonKo 4-1304-7
3 Keon Hwi Cho 4-1.224-5
4 Tae Jun Oh 4-1.200-7
5 Sy Le Dinh 4-1.090-5
6 Su Yeong Park 4-1.090-5
7 Min-Soo Goo 4-1.034-6
8 Shouta Funaki 4-1.000-6
9 Mauricio Aguilar 4-1.000-5
10 Duc Hien Do 4-1.000-5
11 Young Kyun Jung 4-1.000-5
12 Cong Thanh Nguyen 4-0.909-5
13 Chi Minh Truong 4-0.789-5
14 Phu Toan Nguyen 4-0.526-4
15 Hong Ki Lee 3-1.395-9
16 Van Ly Dao 3-1.052-7.

Japanese Shouta Funaki

Colombian Mauricio Aguilar