Blomdahl to the final and new number one

SEOUL - The Swede Torbjörn Blomdahl and the Korean Sung-Won Choi play the final at the World championship three cushion in Seoul. In the semifinals Choi defeated his countryman Hyun Min Seo (40-27 in 20), Blomdahl triumphed against Dutchman Jean Paul de Bruijn 40-33 in 26 innings.

The Swede is therefore the new number one in the world. He passes Belgian Frédéric Caudron, who has lost his world title and is eleven points behind Blomdahl now in the world ranking. Blomdahl can increase the margin by a win in the final.

Sung-Won Choi battles for his first world later today (19.00 Korean time) and a huge premium of the South Korean ministry. All Korean sportsman, who win a world title, may choose: 100.000 euros directly or a high month salary for the rest of their lives.

Never before a Korean player won the world title in three cushion. Sung-Won Choi was once in the final at the World championships in Porto, where Eddy Merckx won.

Torbjörn Blomdahl plays his eleventh World championship final in his career, four times he grabbed the gold.

Sung-Won Choi was in the semifinal against Hyun Min Seo by far the better player. The victory was never in danger.

Jean Paul de Bruijn had lots of chances to beat Torbjörn Blomdahl. The Swede could barely score in the first twenty innings, due to the tactical and defensive playing of his opponent (33-17 in 22 innings, a 16 points lead for de Bruijn).

In the closing innings, Blomdahl finished the job with a superb final rush. The Swede made 22 points in six innings (2-5-11-2-2), the Dutchman missed four times in his last four innings (40-33, 1538/1269).