3-Cushion
VILA NOVA DE GAIA – Will Jérôme Barbeillon get a chance to survive the second day of the qualifications of the World championship, or will his weak start against Jeremy Bury prove to be his undoing? It looks like the dice have been cast in this group. The French battle in the first round saw Bury victorious, and only if Luis Aveiga rises to great heights can he stop him from qualifying.
Neertheless, Jérôme Barbeillon will leave the tournament with his head held high. The European champion in the national doubles (with Bury) played a splendid match this evening when he beat Aveiga 40-32 in 20 innings.
Even if his form comes too late, it was still the best match from the late evening round, that saw exciting but nervy matches on three other tables. Sung-Won Choi had to dig deep in his match against Rui Manuel Costa, Filippos Kasidokostas was far behind against Anh Vu Duong but produced a trademark comeback, and Kyung-Roul Kim narrowly defeated Panamerican champion Carlos Campino 40-38 in 28 innings.
The interim positions are now such, that Bury can secure his place against Aveiga tomorrow. Filippos Kasidokostas will play speelt tegen O Takeshima to win the group, Sung-Won Choi will meet Savas Bulut, who had a false start despite his victory over Costa. Kyung-Roul Kim will meet Chilean playboy Juan Carlos Toro.
But before all that happens, Jae Ho Cho, Martin Horn, Marco Zanetti, Eddy Merckx, Tayfun Tasdemir, Murat Naci Coklu, Lütfi Cenet and Choong-Bok Lee will show up to play their first matches of the tournament.