3-Cushion
SAN JAVIER - The Korean Haeng Jik Kim (20) has given his status in the world of three-cushion a new dimension. In the Spanish town San Javier he won the World Championship for juniors, which yielded him his fourth title.
The young man, who showed himself morally superior again, thusly goes down in history as the most successful junior ever in three cushion. He is the player who controlled and reigned for many years at the World Championships. The title rush is unchallenged: Haeng Jik Kim won his first World Championship in 2007 in Los Alcazares. Five years later, he is still the best and maybe he can perform one more time in the junior championship next year to defend his title.
The Korean kept his best guns for the end in San Javier. He beat Turkish player Ömer Karakurt 35-27 in 23 innings. The end win in the Spanish tournament means his forth, after beating Javier Palazón (Los Alcazares, 2007), Kenny Miatton (2010, Hoogeveen) and Juntae Kim (2011, Guatemala).
Two times he could not grab the gold in the WC, both times Javier Palazón was the winner: in 2008 in Ukkel, in 2009 in Leuven.
The supremacy is nevertheless unique and reminiscent of the glory years of other famous players at the highest level. Raymond Ceulemans, Torbjörn Blomdahl, Dick Jaspers, Dani Sanchez, Eddy Merckx, Marco Zanetti and others never got a chance to win junior titles. Haeng Jik Kim is the exponent of the current generation, that has the opportunity to play for the junior world title every year.
For his fourth world title, Haeng Jik Kim defeated successively Pedro Reyes (1.388), Yusuke Mori (2.272), Joao Ferreira in the quarterfinals (1.842), Jose Garcia in the semi-final (1.666) and Ömer Karakurt in the final (1.571).
In between, he was only beaten in his group match by David Martinez, but he recovered with the best game of the tournament against Japanese Mori.
The final of the tournament was a one-way match, in which Haeng Jik Kim was targeting the end win from the start. He took a lead with a five run to 10-3, kept the margin until 21-15 and was literally flying to 33-23 (21) and 35 to 27 at the finish line.
His Turkish opponent made some precious mistakes when a handful misses bunched together. Two times he left perfect positions for the Korean, who could count on his furious sprint.
Haeng Jik Kim raised his arm in triumph when he made his last carom and later showed his mad joy when he jumped on the podium for the ceremony.
Ömer Karakurt could share in the joy of the winner. The Turk played an excellent tournament and proved that he is one of the players to enrich future of three-cushion.
His father said in San Javier, that Ömer only take a few lessons from Lütfi Cenet. ,,We also have a son of fifteen, who can kill his older brother occasionally when they play together.''
Jose Garcia and Juntae Kim were the losing, very honorable semi finalists. The Colombian Garcia was one of the star playerss of the tournament.
The Spaniards David Zapata and David Martinez kicked off with great ambitions and eagerd to battle for the title, but they collapsed under the pressure of playing for their home audience.