3-Cushion
LUDWIGSHAFEN - The Korean flag hung on top in the billiard room in Guatemala: for the third time in his career Haeng Jik Kim took the junior world title in a final against his three years younger compatriot Jun Tae Kim (3-1). The most succesful youth player of all time is a major contender in the preliminaries of the Agipi Masters this week.
His seems to be very carefree at the moment, but that's not true. ,,I'm worried about my future'', he says in the week in which he will meet Heo Jung Han, Eddy Leppens and Roland Forthomme in his group in Schiltigheim.
,,I think that very soon I will gonna be a soldier in Korea for two years. Maybe therefore I'll have to stop billiards for those years. And if I have been out so long, it's very uncertain how I can return to the top. That gives me a dual feeling: the joy of the title, a little depressed about my future.''
For now Haeng Jik Kim enjoys the success in Guatemala. He was bombarded with congratulations in the weeks after his return to Germany and the Netherlands. Jun Tae Kim, his opponent in the final, he knew from school. ,,We played games together and sometimes we practiced. So I knew him very well and played a surprisingly strong tournament.''
Haeng Jik didn't think that the strength of the feeld was less than in the years he played the World championship with Javier Palazón, Glenn Hoffman, Sameh Sidhom and Antonio Ortiz. ,,Glenn, of course had thought he could play for his last year, he had been a big competitor for me. For him it was unfortunate that he could not play due to the regulations.''
The triple world champion has been grown up in a family with one younger brother (14), who just plays billiards as a hobby. He himself was six years when he stood at the billiard table in the club of his father in Iksan. ,,In between I have been stopped for a couple of years, now I play for ten years. My trainer in Korea was Hwang Hee Durk, who has teached many young boys the basics of three-cushion.''
Haeng Jik combined his study with billiards, until some years ago, now he only plays billiards. Three months in a year he stays in his homeland, the other nine months in Germany, where he lives in a small apartment. ,,The billiard room where I practice is very near. There I play about three to five hours a day.''
His favorite players to see in the top of the world ranking? ,,I like to see all the other top players, everyone has his own special qualities.'' But if he has to mention two of them: ,,Caudron and Blomdahl, because of their style and speed in their game.''
The final test for the Agipi performance was encouraging: Haeng Jik Kim won his match of fifty points with Horster Eck in the bundesliga on Saturday in 32 innings (1.562 average) and on Sunday against Magdeburg with 1.351. His team, the German champion, lost that match, partially due to a win of Dick Jaspers, who defeated Martin Horn 50-35. Jaspers, by the way, playing for Magdeburg, made his 50 points on Saturday in only fifteen innings.
Haeng Jik Kim survived in Agipi the preliminary round last year with victories against Javier Palazón and Cédric Melnytschenko and a loss against Eric Tromas. He was eliminated in the last qualifying stage: Kim took the fifth place behind Eddy Merckx, Frédéric Caudron, Torbjörn Blomdahl and Nikos Polychronopoulos.
The young Korean is playing on Thursday (October 27) his first match against Jung Han Heo (17.30) and on Friday against Eddy Leppens (14.00) and Roland Forthomme (21.00).