3-Cushion
GURI - The rising star of Korean billiards had made a great comeback at the World Cup stage. HaengJik Kim's shining start at the World Cup in Guri, with two wins, 2.142 average and a run of nine, is even better than Semih Sayginer's performance on the second day. The Turk is gradually coming in his rhythm with two victories and 1.875.
HaengJik Kim was the most outstanding player in the second session of the preliminaries. The former four-time junior world champion (22 now) defeated another Korean, Tae Soo Lim 30-11 in fourteen and in his last group match the Belgian owner of a billiard café, Vincent Eugene 30-15 in 14 innings.
The Korean prodigy, who was hit by a brain stroke last year, made his comeback at the billiard table already before, but is now thrown to the lions in a World Cup for his home crowd. And not only his World Cup comeback is important. The best of Koreans are also vying for a place at the World championships that will be held in Korea next month.
His comment after the two matches today was short and humble as he always is. ,,I'm fine, thank you... and yes, I was a little lucky today.'' The reality was that Haeng Jik was simply and by far the best against these two opponents and that his World Cup is now really starting. Tomorrow, Wednesday, he meets a tough Vietnamese fighter in the arena: the old warrior Vinh Ly The. The other opponent is the Colombian Mauricio Aguilar.
,,I didn't practice that much in the month before this World Cup'', HaengJik frankly told. ,,I was at home most of the time, because it was too cold here in Suwon.'' He doesn't think that he will play the World championship next month in Korea. The Koreans have their strong big five with Sung-Won Choi, Kyung-Roul Kim, Jae Ho Cho, Jung Han Heo and Choong Bok Lee.
HaengJik Kim led the rankings today after the group matches and obtained the best average ahead of second-placed Semih Sayginer, Kwang Yeol Park, Duy Trung Nguyen and Ahmet Bayatli. The last of twelve who was qualified was Hoang Mai Phuoc Le, four match points and 0.869.
The Turk Güngördü Yavuz, the young Korean Myung Woo Cho and Tae Soo Lim were the first reserves with averages of 1.567, 1.540 and 1.518.
Three Turks meet tomorrow in the next round in one group: Semih Sayginer, Koray Kirman and Birol Uymaz. The junior world champion from last year, Jose Juan Garcia, shows up in a group with two other Turks, Ahmet Bayatali and Gungor Bastunali. Jef Philipoom meets Ronald Geyt and Heung Sik Park and Louis Aveiga is divided in a group with Hyung Kon Kim and Regay Henry.
The South Americans will show up in the coming days with Javier Teran, Robinson Morales and Luis Aveiga.
Therese Klompenhouwer must prepare for a hard fight with two Vietnamese: Minh Cam Ma and Hong Van Luu.
The top twelve of the second day (all four match points, average and highest runs):
1 HaengJik Kim 2.142-9
2 Semih Sayginer 1.875-9
3 Kwang Yeol Park 1.666-10
4 Duy Trun Nguyen 1.538-5
5 Ahmet Bayatli 1.500-9
6 Jin Pyo ong 1.463-6
7 Heung Sik Park 1.428-10
8 Hyung Kon Kim 1.363-7
9 Tae Ho Woo 1.363-7
10 Quang Hao Truong 1.200-10
11 Hong van Luu 1.071-5
12 Hoang Mai Phuoc Le 0.869-6.