Carom
SEOUL - The big favorite to win the Asian championship was killed in the final. Chung Bok Lee defeated his opponent Sung Won Choi: 3-0 with an average of 2.368. The new champion was at his best in the deciding set of the championship, that was played in the Novotel Ambassador Doksan in Seoul. Chung Bok Lee is not an unknown player in the Korean top: he won in the World Cup in Suwon in 2007 in the eighth final against Torbjörn Blomdahl (3-1). And this year in the World championship for teams in Viersen he was unbeaten and defeated Murat Naci Coklu (2-0, 2.142 average), Jérôme Barbeillon (2-0, 1.25) en Eddy Leppens (3-1, 2.041).
Sung Won Choi, who made his international breakthrough last year and is the number eight in the world, was the big favorite for the title based on the preliminaries, the semifinals and his international experience. He defeated Jae Ho Cho in the semis and was against Ryuji Umeda (3-0, 1,800) with Jae Ho Cho the best player in the quarterfinals.
But in the final match Chung Bok Lee was playing as a lion: he won the first set 15-11 in 10 innings, the second 15-14 in 7 innings and the third 15-6 in only two innings with a final run of nine.
The final round of eight in Seoul was played with six Koreans (Jung Han Heo, Sung Won Choi, Jae Ho Cho, Dong Gung Kang, Chung Bok Lee and Kyung Roul Kim), one Vietnamese (Xuan Cuong Ma) and one Japanese (Ryuji Umeda). Famous players like Tatsuo Arai, Yoichiro Mori, Duong Anh Vu, Ly The Vinh and Kouji Funaki were already eliminated in the eighth finals.
Kyung Roul Kim, number four of the world and also one of the top favorites, lost in the quarterfinals 3-2 against Jae Ho cho, who was after 2-2 in the deciding set in ten innings (15-9) to strong for his opponent (average 1.861).
Gung Dong Kang defeated Xuan Cuong Ma 3-0, Chung Bok Lee beat Jung Han Heo 3-2 and Sung Won Choi defeated the former world champion Ryuji Umeda 3-0.
The semi finals were spectacular and with a lot of tension. Chung Bok Lee and Gung Dong Kang needed a fifth set to decide who would go to the finale. Lee won 3-2 with an average of 1.522. The match between Sung Won Choi and Jae Ho Cho was exciting until the very last caroms. Choi won the fifth set 15-12.
The final standings of the Asian championship:
1 Chung Bok Lee (general average in 1.479 finals, series 9), 2 Sung Won Choi (1.538, 10), 3 Kang Dong Gung (1.309, 10), 4 Jae Ho Cho (1.554, 9), 5 Kyung Roul Kim (1.457, 9), 6 Jung Han Heo (1.111, 8), 7 Ryuji Umeda (1.333, 4), 8 Ma Xuan Cuong (0.857, 3).