3-Cushion
SEOUL - The two Grand Prix events of the UMB, which will be played in the first weeks of July in South Korea and organised by Five&Six, will not have the complete world top at the start. Two players have already cancelled their participation to the UMB: Marco Zanetti and Martin Horn. But also Vietnamese Duc Anh Chien Nguyen, number two at the last three cushion World Championship, will not travel to Korea. The situation around the COVID-19 infections has worsened in Vietnam in recent weeks, so Nguyen is not taking any risks.
Besides, the two weeks quarantine after returning to Vietnam is a hindrance. Nguyen assures that he does not want to be in an isolation, away from his wife and children for three weeks.
Martin Horn gives several reasons for his cancellation. ''First of all, I don't want to travel far away without being vaccinated. If anything happens, I prefer to be near my home town, because I am still too scared. And yes, two weeks of quarantine would drive me crazy, as I also suffer from claustrophobiacal problems. The Corona situation has made me depressive and I cannot concentrate to play competition before I had my vaccination en when the whole situation is under control.''
The German would have loved to play in Korea. ,,But all these reasons forced me to cancel. I am a very sensitive human being. Be sure, I keep on practicing to have a good come-back when the pandemic is over. I appreciate that tournaments are organized in these hard times, but for me personally, it is impossible to take part. I really say sorry and wish all players the best success and health.''
Marco Zanetti also justified his decision to cancel for the Korean tournaments: ''It's hard for me to stay abroad for more than 35 days including the quarantine and in summertime with my son in school vacations.''
The two other Vietnamese players in the player list will participate in the Five&six tournaments. Nguyen Quoc Nguyen: ''It is true that COVID-19 returned to Vietnam a fortnight ago. Everything is closed, including the billiard halls. Still, Quyet Chien Tran and I will play in Korea. We have applied for our visas.''
UMB president Barki confirms the cancellations. He assures: ''We are monitoring the COVID situation and we are in talks with the organisers for future events, especially the World Championship in Korea, which will be played from 20-24 October 2021.''
The World Cups that were scheduled for the next time, in Ho Chi Minh (May 24-30) and Porto (July 5-11) were removed earlier from the calendar. There is no certainty yet about the Survival events for the coming period.
The deadline for registrations for the 5&6 events, with a total prize money of 300,000 US dollars, ended on 11 April. For now, the names, without the three players who cancelled, are:
Dick Jaspers, Torbjörn Blomdahl, Eddy Merckx, Tayfun Tasdemir, Dani Sánchez, Quyet Chien Tran, HaengJik Kim, Sameh Sidhom, Semih Sayginer, Murat Naci Coklu, Jérémy Bury, Lütfi Cenet, Sung-Won Choi, Jung-Han Heo, Roland Forthomme, Nguyen Quoc Nguyen, Dion Nelin, Nikos Polychronopoulos, Therese Klompenhouwer, Gülsen Degener.
Reserve: Antonio Montes.