3-Cushion
LAS VEGAS - The final field in the last preliminary rounds at the World Cup in Las Vegas is headed by Vietnamese Dinh Tien Kang and Korean Ja In Kang. The fourth of in total seven days of play starts with twelve groups of three players, who fight for fifteen places in the main tournament: twelve group winners, three runners-up. Tomorrow (Thursday) all the world top players enter the tournament with Jaspers, Zanetti, Blomdahl, Tran, Tasdemir, Sayginer and Merckx.
The Vietnamese Dinh Tien Dang was for two days the best of the whole field, on Monday with 1,428 on average, on the fourth and penultimate day of qualifications with 1,935 ahead of Ja In Kang with 1,621, Jeffrey Jorissen with 1,538, Myeong Jong Cha and Robinson Morales both with 1,500. The field of twelve group winners included six Europeans: Dutch Jeffrey Jorissen and Joey de Kok, Turks Turgay Orak and Muammer Rahmet, Austrian Herbert Szivach and Dane Tonny Carlsen. In addition, Arnim Kahofer returns as the best of the runners-up for the final qualification. The best known group winners were Robinson Morales, Ja In Kang, Luis Aveiga, Huberney Cataño and Tonny Carlsen.
Luis Aveiga played the best match against Kevin Vasseur (30-15 in 12), but then lost to Cengiz Karaca 30-29. The Ecuadorian ball magicien was group winner with two match points. Robinson Morales defeated Maurer and Almarez in his matches with 30 in 20 innings. Jeffrey Jorissen was the better of Tom Löwe 30-19 in 26 and Korean Dong Ryong Kim 30-10 in 13, including a high run of 12.
Two Dutchmen, Joey de Kok and Volkan Cetin, played in the same group. De Kok from Zeeland won the first match 30-20 in 28 and went to the next round with 4 match points and 1,111 by beating American Carlos Mario Villegas (30-21 in 26). Joey de Kok starts the last qualification round today (Wednesday) against Frank Torres at 18.00 West European time. He will meet up with Korean ex-world champion Sung-won Choi later in the day. Other interesting pairings are Dion Nelin, who plays against his World Championship teammate Jacob Haack Sörensen, Robinson Morales against World Championship finalist and Colombian compatriot Pedro Gonzalez and Roland Forthomme against Jeffrey Jorissen.
The groups for the final qualifications:
Group A: De Kok, Torres, Choi
Group B: Hwang, Cataño, Cenet
Group C: Szivach, Orak, DCA Nguyen
Group D: Carlsen, DH Kim, MW Cho
Group E: Aveiga, Salman, JT Kim
Group F: Kahofer, Rahmet, Quoc Nguyen
Group G: Nelin, Sörensen, Son
Group H: Morales, Gonzalez, CB Lee
Group I: WY Choi, Cha, Seo
Group J: Forthomme, Jorissen, Do Nguyen
Group K: Garcia, Kang, Ceulemans
Group L: Montes, Capak, Dang.
Jeffrey Jorissen from Holland, the best European in the Tuesday-rounds