3-Cushion
VIERSEN - Two world champions in the arena, two home players as challengers, a Belgian fanclub with bells and three colored hats, the home crowd in the battle for the gold to yell and encourage ’the Mannschaft'.
’Jetzt geh't los’ at the World championship in Viersen with a final between Belgium and Germany, a repeat of last year’s final. The Belgians are favorite, just like last year, according to the latest performances in the quarterfinals and semifinals.
The reigning champion team is extremely strong at two tables and shows up as a fighting team. Sometimes, when one of them is not at his peak for a moment, the other demonstrates his class and mettle.
Eddy Merckx did it a few times so far, as in his match against Dick Jaspers and with his 30-1 win against Julian Morales. This morning, when the Belgians faced South Korea in the semi’s, Frédéric Caudron was the star player.
Eddy Merckx was still fighting for the win with Kyung-Roul Kim, the other world topper (22-14 in 14). Frédéric Caudron rolled over the other Korean, Jung Han Heo, finishing 40-10 in 13 innings.
The other semifinal between Germany and Turkey was a lot more exciting and only decided in the last caroms. Martin Horn had a lightning start against Tayfun Tasdemir (9-0 and 23-3), but allowed his opponent to come back in the match (37-28).
Horn closed the match in the 20th inning. Tasdemir stopped his run after two in the equalizer.
Murat Naci Coklu and Christian Rudolph were at 27-25 at the other table, when the Turk ran to 35-25 with eight. Coklu needed a quick finish to enter the final with his country, bit he did not manage to end up the match.
His German opponent fought back from 38-26 to 38-30 and finally made the three caroms needed to reach the final with his team.
The final starts at 14.00.