Danish ups and Danish downs in blue spotlights

11/26/2019

Published by frits bakker

The ceremony at the World championship in Randers with the 48 players

RANDERS - One Danish wildcard had a miserable start, the other stylishly crossed the finish with a thunderous applause. The World championship three cushion in Randers, Denmark, was launched in the dark blue spotlights of the billiard arena accompanied by the music of the American rock band Survivor: The eye of the tiger. The eyes of the home crowd were aimed, among others, at the three Danes in the field of 48 players. Jacob Sörensen withstood the stress on the home stage with a win over Spaniard Rubén Legazpi, 40-37 in 20 innings.

The contrast with Thomas Andersen, his countryman who had to start the show, was striking. The blonde Viking was quickly knocked down by Korean Wan Young Choi (40-11 in 20) and punished for a nervous start: 10 misses in the first 11 innings. When he finally started to score, his opponent was already out of sight. The third in the schedule, Dion Nelin, last time silver medal winner at the World championship in Randers, had a very decent start beating Colombian Mauricio Gutierrez: not an excellent run-up, better towards the end and with a 40-24 in 24 win.

The World championship opening, by the Viennese sports director Herbert Thuer of the UMB in the absence of President Farouk Barki, was marked by an emotional interlude: players and audience in the Vaerket hall remembered the Japanese Nobuaki Kobayashi, two-time world champion three-cushion in his glory years and one of the great rivals of Raymond Ceulemans. The Japanese died this week on the age of 77. Belgian legend Raymond Ceulemans, 21-time world champion three cushion, is a guest of honor at the World championship and received a special welcome from Danish president Torsten Danielsson.

The tournament start, with 48 players in sixteen groups of three, of which the two best go on, gave a first indication about form and quality. The best matches: Javier Teran, Duc Anh Chien Nguyen, Tayfun Tasdemir in 18, Nguyen Quoc Nguyen, Javier Vera and Dick Jaspers in 19. And the day's highlight, Semih Sayginer and Barry van Beers in a draw: 40-40 in 19. Best runs: Javier Vera and Barry van Beers, both 14. The Dutchman had a brilliant end rush: not only 14, also 6 to the end.

The new Vietnamese star Duc Anh Chien Nguyen, who was on stage at the World Cup in Veghel, boldy embarked for his new adventure with eleven from the break against Juan Carlos del Salto from Ecuador, who even could not pass the ten-barrier in eighteen innings: 40-9. Javier Vera, a feared outsider from Mexico, showed his very best in the match with Lütfi Cenet which he launched by 8 and later, four innings to the finish, definitely decided by the best day-run of 14 which he shared with Dutchman Barry van Beers. The final score: 40-29 in 19.

Javier Teran was unforbidding for another South American, Jose Juan Garcia: 40-13 in 18. Yusuke Mori, the young Japanese compatriot of Kobayashi, passed Rui Costa to the finish line at 40-38 in 35. Sameh Sidhom defeated the other Egyptian, Mohamed Abdin, 40-38 in 28. Roland Forthomme had to put up a hard fight to finish it off against young Italian Alessio D'Agata (40-36 in 29) and Dani Sánchez dealt with the Swedish collector of world'team gold, Michael Nilsson (40-28 in 20) and so, that first day was a valuable prologue of what can be expected in the coming days.

Jacob Sörensen gave his first comment on the tournament: ''We can be happy to perform at the World stage in such a great place and in front of our own audience. My start was pretty good. I felt calm, I had a good preparation and had more control over the game than my opponent at the end. Thomas (Andersen), in his own city, felt much more pressure. His match was extra difficult with an opponent who strongly defended."

The schedule on the first day? Four sessions of four matches, so that 32 players could fire the first arrows in the first four sessions. And in the final evening session, one round with the group leaders of the first flights: Dick Jaspers, Marco Zanetti, Tayfun Tasdemir and Semih Sayginer.

For 3 players, the tournament is already over after two losses: Jose Juan Garcia, Thomas Andersen and Ahmed Abdullah. Twelve other losers from the first four rounds are under pressure of having to win on Wednesday with Lütfi Cenet as the most known. Barry van Beers was great in his last rushes when he felt to be out against Sayginer. The draw with 14 and 6 gives him a very little chance. The start against Kahofer (40-31 loss in 32 innings) offers him minimal perspective to survive.