3-Cushion
VIERSEN - For the second time in a row and with the same authority in the final, the Belgians Eddy Merckx and Frédéric Caudron have become the world champions in three cushion for national teams. The strongest country in the world in this discipline took the title in the final battle against Germany.
Frédéric Caudron secured the gold medal in the last game for the nation that has produced grand masters as Raymond Ceulemans, René Vingerhoedt, Ludo Dielis, where there is a new generation on top now with Eddy Merckx and Frédéric Caudron.
The royal couple in this discipline dealed with all the rivalry in the beautiful Stadthalle in Viersen with its fantastic atmosphere. Both Eddy Merckx and Frédéric Caudron shone with a main role at the international stage. Merckx mostly had the best start, Caudron the better final sprint.
The Belgians were only one time in serious trouble, in the quarterfinal against the Netherlands with Dick Jaspers and Raimond Burgman. Eddy Merckx needed an impressive mental strength to defeat Dick Jaspers and forced the way to the semi finals for his team after Caudron and Burgman had tied at the other table.
The Brabanconne (Belgian anthem) sounded for the second time, after the Belgians had missed the main prize for years in the era in which Sweden, Germany and Turkey dominated the field. The Germans won the title four times before, all wins with Christian Rudolph in the team and only in 2002 with Martin Horn.
The final victory of the two most laureled Belgian players is the more remarkable, because they both missed the final in the Belgian championship. Roland Forthomme is the new champion Eddy Leppens second. Caudron and Merckx were eliminated in the semifinals.
The result is a confirmation of an old Belgian saying: that it is, with so many strong players, more difficult sometimes to take the Belgian title than to become world champion.
That does not mean that Eddy Merckx and Frédéric Caudron are not the players with the most impressive honor role, who are by far the best Belgian three cushion players over the entire year.
Eddy Merckx shone especially in the early sessions of the tournament against Julian Morales (30-1) and Dick Jaspers, whom he defeated with a tremendous endrush.
Frédéric Caudron beat three of his opponents with an extremely strong final in his matches. Jung Han Heo, the Korean, was 40-10 down in only 13 innings in the semifinals. And Christian Rudolph could not threat the master in the final: 40-30, so that Merckx (32-31 behind against Martin Horn) didn’t have to finish his match.
The strength of the Belgians was again the homogeneity of the team: with these two world class players, the country is stronger than all competitors. On the stage, furthermore were the Germans as the winners of silver and the Koreans and Turks as winners of bronze.
The Germans had a superior captain in Martin Horn, but their second player Rudolph was not strong enough to match with the big names. For the Koreans, Jung Han Heo, who suffers a form crisis for some time, was not on his best again in Viersen. The Turks missed the final because Tasdemir was far away from the level he showed in the Agipi preliminaries. Murat Naci Coklu was better than his leading captain, but could not manage to save his team.
And thus, the Belgians, passionately supported by their fans in the stands, were the show masters at the World’s gala on the closing day.
The final score (match points and average per team):
1 Belgium, 10-1.640
2 Germany, 8-1.371
3 South Korea 6-1.397
3 Turkey, 6-1.580
5 Spain, 4-1.313
6 Netherlands, 4-1.571
7 Austria, 3-1.151
8 Denmark, 3-1.304
The individual ranking (matches played, match points, average):
1 Martin Horn, 5-10-1.622
2 Frédéric Caudron, 5-9-1.607
3 Murat Naci Coklu, 4-8-1.623
4 Eddy Merckx, 5-8-1.681
5 Dani Sánchez, 3-6-1.573
6 Arnim Kahofer, 3-6-1.573
7 Kyung-Roul Kim, 4-6-1.459
8 Jung Han Heo, 4-6-1.341
9 Raimond Burgman, 3-5-1.265
10 Barry van Beers, 2-4-1.200
Torbjörn Blomdahl achieved the highest average (2.217), but only played two games: one win, one loss.
Dick Jaspers finished 2.085 in three matches.