Belgian star players in group of death

NEW YORK - The draw for the first final round in the Verhoeven Open has brought together three Belgians star players in a group of death. Eddy Merckx, Eddy Leppens and Raymond Ceulemans meet in this group (C) with six, in which they also meet Julian Torres, Mazin Shooni and Harry Pena for two places in the main tournament with eight players.

Group D is a very interesting fight as well with Luis Aveiga, one of the best players in the preliminaries with a run of 17, Javier Teran, Pedro Piedrabuena and ... Semih Sayginer.

Torbjörn Blomdahl starts off in Group B with Gerhard Kostistanski and Hugo Patino.

Four groups of six start in the first final round, the top two finishers advance for the final round with eight players.
The full results of the draw:

Group A:
Torbjörn Blomdahl, Hugo Patino, Ricardo Carranco, Gerhard Kostistansky, Daniel Reyes and Brian Yi.

Group B:
Frédéric Caudron, Roland Forthomme, Sameh Sidhom, Allan Yensen, Joel Switala and Carlos Palafox.

Group C:
Raymond Ceulemans, Eddy Merckx, Eddy Leppens, Julian Torres, Mazin Shooni, Harry Pena.

Group D:
Semih Sayginer, Pedro Piedrabuena, Luis Aveiga, Miguel Torres, Javier Teran and Sang Jin Lee.

Harry Pena and Mazin Shooni were the best numbers three in the qualification.
Three players remained unbeaten in the preliminary rounds: Allan Jensen in Group A, Luis Aveiga in B and Eddy Leppens in H.

Luis Aveiga finished as group winner ahead of Eddy Merckx and shone with a run of seventeen, the highest in the preliminaries.

Roland Forthomme played an amazing match against Gerhard Kostistanski. The Belgian, key player with a match in 4 innings, was trailing 19-9, needed a win and attacked to a 25-23 victory. Therefore he finished as the winner in the group ahead of Kostistanski and Shooni.

The eight group winners in qualification rounds were:

Group A: Allan Jensen (14 points, 0966).
Groupl B: Luis Aveiga, 14-1.458-17
Group C: Roland Forthomme, 14-1.707
Group D: Hugo Patino, 12-1.208
Group E: Pedro PiedrabBuena, 12-1.386
Group F: Javier Teran, 12-1.121
Group G: Sameh Sidhom, 12-1.346
Group H: Eddy Leppens, 14-1.785.