3-Cushion
WONJU - The final round in the World 3Cushion Grand Prix in Korea will be launched with a field of six top European players and two Koreans who don't belong to the best of their country. The Turks have achieved a magnificent result with four players in the top eight. Dick Jaspers and Torbjörn Blomdahl finished as the group winners: the Dutchman with 16 match points, 2,714 on average and a best run of 19, the Swedish world champion with 16 match points, 1,916 and 17 as best run. The final round, in which a top prize of 73.000 Euros is at stake, starts tomorrow, Thursday, and is spread over two days in a full Round Robin competition. After that round, the final ranking will be made. The best four players start the battle in the play-offs.
That final battle with four players will be contested according to a special format. The number 4 first plays the number 3, then the winner will play the number 2 from the final ranking and finally the winner of that match meets the player who finished first in that final round ranking.
The European six in the final round with eight consists of Dick Jaspers, Torbjörn Blomdahl, Murat Naci Coklu, Semih Sayginer, Tayfun Tasdemir and Lütfi Cenet. The Koreans in the final round are two surprising names: Jun Tae Kim and Bong Joo Hwang. The famous Koreans Sung-won Choi, Jung Han Heo, HaengJik Kim and Choong Bok Lee were eliminated as well as the Vietnamese Quyet Chien Tran and Nguyen Quoc Nguyen.
Dick Jaspers finished ahead of Lütfi Cenet in Group A, the Turk who crowned a thrilling final sprint with the runner-up position in this flight, in which he was just the better of his compatriots Tayfun Tasdemir and Semih Sayginer. Cenet scored 13 match points, Tasdemir 12 and Sayginer 10. The Vietnamese Nguyen was eliminated with 9 match points on the last day by losing to Eddy Merckx 2-1. Tasdemir won his match with Dick Jaspers 2-0 (13-11 in 7, 15-11 in 7, average 2,000) and so handed the Dutchman the only defeat in the stretch of seven matches for each player.
Jaspers and Blomdahl each won five matches, drew once and lost one, Jaspers against Tasdemir in his last game for this round, Blomdahl also in his last game: against Myung Jong Cha. The two numbers two, Murat Naci Coklu and Lütfi Cenet, lost two matches each, Cenet also played one draw.
Jun Tae Kim was the best of the Koreans with a third place in the group with Blmdahl and Coklu. In his last match, Kim won the match against Coklu 2-1 with an average of 2,739 and two runs of 11. The other Korean in this group, Bong Joo Hwang, who finished third ahead of Jung Han Heo, is a rather unknown in the circuit of top players. With 13 match points, he was one point ahead of Heo (who won against Polychronopoulos).
The final showdown in Group A was one in which after Dick Jaspers, the number one, the Turks reigned supremely with three players in the top four. Lütfi Cenet was imposing in the last part. In his ultimate match, he beat Semih Sayginer 2-1 with a 2,416 average and two runs of 13. Cenet also excelled in this round with a top run of 23, the highest so far in this Grand Prix.
The qualified players for the final round are:
Group A: Dick Jaspers, Lütfi Cenet, Tayfun Tasdemir and Semih Sayginer
Group B: Torbjörn Blomdahl, Murat Naci Coklu, Jun Tae Kim and Bong Joo Hwang.
In the final group the following matches will be played on the first of two days tomorrow (Thursday):
Blomdahl-Hwang
Jaspers-Sayginer
Kim-Cenet
Tasdemir-Coklu
Jaspers-Hwang
Sayginer-Tasdemir
Cenet-Coklu
Blomdahl-Kim
Hwang-Kim
Jaspers-Tasdemir.
The final rakings in the two groups of the second round:
Group A:
1 Dick Jaspers 7-16-2,714-19
2 Lütfi Cenet 7-13-2,105-23
3 Tayfun Tasdemir 7-12-1,795-13
4 Semih Sayginer 7-10-2,058-15
5 Quyet Chien Tran 7-10-1,966-13
6 Nguyen Quoc Nguyen 7-9-1,638-12
7 Eddy Merckx 7-8-1,690-13
8 Won Young Choi 7-3-1,507-11
Group B:
1 Torbjörn Blomdahl 7-16-1,961-17
2 Murat Naci Coklu 7-15-2,089-14
3 Jun Tae Kim 7-15-1,900-16
4 Bong Joo Hwang 7-13-1,593-11
5 Jung Han Heo 7-12-2,102-11
6 Myung Jong Cha 7-6-1,668-12
7 Nikos Polychronopoulos 7-3-1,434-8
8 Chang Hoon Seo 7-3-1,337-9
Dion Nelin and Choong Bok Lee are the winners in the two groups in the loser's competition. Two leagues with 8 players were played there as wel. Korean Lee was the winner in Group A ahead of Sánchez, Haeng Jik Kim and Chi Yeon Cho, Sánchez had an average of 2,000, HaengJik Kim made the best run with 18. Nelin finished in Group B with 18 match points and 1,572, run of 17 followed by Sameh Sidhom (15 points), Ja In Kang (13) and Roland Forthomme. The Belgian closed his performance with 13 points, an average of 1,820. Therese Klompenhouwer finished seventh, following Antonio Montes (6th) and ahead of Ji Eun Han. The Dutch lady averaged 1,090 with a best run of 5.
Torbjörn Blomdahl, the frontrunner in Group B
Dick Jaspers, the best in Group A ahead of three Turkish players
Murat Naci Coklu, the runner up in Blomdahl's group
Lütfi Cenet, great finish, runner up following Jaspers
Jun Tae Kim, the best of the Koreans
The four Turkish giants for the final round: Tayfun Tasdemir, Murat Naci Coklu, Semih Sayginer and Lütfi Cenet