Little boys grow up to be big boys

ANTALYA – We know the Koreans have strength in numbers, and that they will produce averages of 1.500 and up in the Suwon World Cup. But in other billiard minded countries too, little boys grow up to be big boys. The preliminaries of the Antalya World Cup are proof of that.

Take a quick look at today’s high runs: Birol Uymaz ran a 14, in a magnificent match against Johann Schirmbrand (30-11 in 11 innings, 2.727).

Semesettin Azimli produced a string of 13, only to be eliminated. Selim Özden scored a 12, Hamit Akkaya an 11, and no less than six runs of 10 could be watched.

That’s an embarrasment of riches for a second qualification day, comparable only to the annual feast in the World Cup of Suwon.

The Turkish home players once again dominated, with Hamit Akkaya as frontrunner (4 match points, 1.666) followed by Selim Özden (1.436) and Ismail Yasin (1.363).

Korean Chi Yeon Cho was the first non-Turk, with Ricardo Garcia Alarcon, a strong and seasoned Spanish player who made the main draw in Matosinhos once, in his wake.

Fourteen of the 24 players on today’s list are from the host country, twenty players won both their flight matches, two proceeded with three match points and Mehmet Yavaz and Omer Karakurt lucked out with just two points.

Young Turk Karakurt survived the round thanks to a lovely run of 6 that took him across the line against Dae Woong Lee. Mehmet Yavaz miraculously qualified, having lost his opening match against Semsettin Azimli.

Bart Ceulemans played solidly, but could not win. Both matches - against Mahmut Ozdemir and Gokhan Salman – ended in a draw for the congenial Belgian, once even despite a run of 10.

Wim van den Berg and Nalle Olsson threw away their chances in the second match, having won the first. The Spaniards still have four cards in the deck: Ricardo Garcia Alarcon, Juan David Zapata, David Martinez and Carlos Crespo.

Murat Celik (1.325), Muhammed Cavusoglu (1.244) and Tolgahan Kiraz (1.208) are a remarkable top-3 in the list of 24 qualifiers. Especially since 7 out of these 24 players averaged under 1. David Martinez scored  0.882, Hayri Akgun 0.821 and Carlos Crespo 0.810.

Tomorrow (Wednesday), in the penultimate selection before the main draw, the level can only go up, with players like Jung Han Heo, Michael Nilsson, Javier Palazón, Peter Ceulemans and Jean Paul de Bruijn.

The most interesting flights:
Poule A: Ruben Legazpi, Omer Karakurt, Hyung Bum Hwang.
Poule C: Jérôme Barbeillon, Joël Switala, Carlos Crespo.
Poule D: Jung Han Heo, Jae Guen Kim, Mahmut Ozdemir.
Poule H: Ronny Lindemann, Azbey Kuslu, Glenn Hofman.
Poule I: José Maria Mas, Pascal Claus, Radek Novak.
Poule J: Can Capak, Hyun Suk Kim, Tae Soo Lim.
Poule K: Michael Nilsson, Dong Hoon Kim, Riad Nady.
Poule L: Peter Ceulemans, Ihab El Messery, Juan David Zapata.
Poule P: Murat Tüzül, Orhan Erogul, Jean Reverchon.
Poule V: Dave Christiani, Francis Forton, Ismail Yasin.

Top ten of the second day:
1 Hamit Akkaya (Tr)
2 Selim Özden (Tr)
3 Ismail Yasin (Tr)
4 Chi Yeon Cho (Kr)
5 Ricardo Garcia Alarcon (Sp)
6 Birol Uymaz (Tr)
7 Ibrahim Muslu (Tr)
8 Volkan Cimentepe (Tr)
9 Orhan Erogul (Dui)
10 Apostolos Balogiannis (Gr).