3-Cushion
RANDERS - The all time champion Raymond Ceulemans was crowned world champion three cushion in Luxembourg for the 21st and last time at the age of 64. He defeated then 39-year-old Marco Zanetti in the final 3-1 in sets and then retired from playing individual tournaments, satisfied and as a major ambassador. The palmares will never be improved, although from the current generation, the now 57-year-old Torbjörn Blomdahl is not nearly at the end of his career. The same for Marco Zanetti, also born in 1962, but half a year older. The Swede and the Italian are certainly among the contenders for the title this week, in the era in which Dick Jaspers, Frédéric Caudron and Dani Sánchez are the most recent world champions.
The Swede Blomdahl has the most impressive honor roll of all players at this World championship. He won the world title for the last time in Bordeaux, 2015 in a terrifying final against Dong-Koong Kang. The so called whirlwind took the most coveted title six times in total, the first in 1987 in Caïro. His huge world class even more reflects on the number of victories in World Cups: 44 in total and 89 places on the podium (44-19-26). With that, Blomdahl leads the all time rankings ahead of Dick Jaspers (25-19-20) and Frédéric Caudron (21-12-18).
The Swede qualified for the knock-out with the best 32 this Wednesday. Young Italian talent Alessio D'Agata, born in 2000, one year before Ceulemans won his last world title, was 13-1 down at the start against Blomdahl 13-1, closed the margin slightly, but still lost 40-21 in 19 innings. And because D'Agata also was beaten by Forthomme in that group, the decision is known. Blomdahl and Forthomme play their last group match for the leading position on Thursday at 11.00.
Marco Zanetti, winning champion in his country this weekend with two high-end matches, mistaked in his second match against Wan-Young Choi. He ran away from the Korean by a 10 and led all the way (23-13, 30-20, 38-28), but let his opponent slip away by striking misses at the end (one point in the last five innings), to a 40- 39 loss in 20. It wasn't fatal, because Zanetti had already secured for the next round with his first victory over home player Thomas Andersen. The other three players from the top four on the list also affirmed the continuation in the tournament. Dick Jaspers defeated Dustin Jäschke, who joins him as second man (40-7 in 15), Tayfun Tasdemir beat Javier Teran (40-16 in 15), and Semih Sayginer won against Arnim Kahofer (40-26 in 22), whereby Dutchman Barry van Beers was definitively out.
The second day started with a crushing match from Eddy Merckx. The Belgian started his tournament with one of the most appealing matches so far, which he won against Rui Costa 40-11 in 13 innings by a run of 18 in the 9th inning (36-6). Jae-Ho Cho was slightly better with a spectacular win over Duc Anh Chien Nguyen, after runs of 11 and 14 leading to 40-15 in 12 innings.
The other strong winners on the second day fluctuated around 18, 19 and 20 innings with peaks for Jaspers and Tasdemir (15 innings) and Quyet Chien Tran against Jacob Sörensen 40-24 in 16.The tension about 'yes or no' move on lacked in the last Wednesday session. The group win was still at stake, including the matches Horn-Nelin and Coklu-Polychronopoulos. Jérémy Bury put pressure on Pedro Gonzalez (20-8) by a 9 from the spots, HaengJik Kim started an early attack on Erick Tellez (23-13).
Martin Horn ran out with 10 to 23-12 in 8 against Dion Nelin and finished 40-20 in 20. Polychronopoulos made the gap with a wonderful 15 and was not threatened by Coklu despite a late 8: 40-30 in 25. HaengJik Kim and Jérémy Bury were the last winners over Tellez (40-28 in 24) and Gonzalez (40-23 in 21).
The most exciting fight unrolls in the group with Javier Vera (Mexico), Jung-Han Heo (Korea) and Lütfi Cenet (Turkey), which will result in an open fight on Thursday after Vera's victory over Cenet. He took the win against Heo (40-30 in 23) and has two match points out of two games. The third match (Vera-Heo) decides on the two top positions.
The final rankings in the groups that have been finished:
Group A:
1 Dick Jaspers 4-2.352-4
2 Dustin Jäschke 2-1.020-6
3 Ahmed Abdallah 0-0.520-5
Group B:
1 Wan Young Choi 4-2,000-7
2 Marco Zanetti 2-1.880-10
3 Thomas Andersen 0-0.904-10
Group C:
1 Tayfun Tasdemir 4-2.424-12
2 Javier Teran 2-1.696-0
3 Jose Juan Garcia 0-0.888-6
Group D:
1 Semih Sayginer 3-1,951-13
2 Arnim Kahofer 2-1.222-10
3 Barry van Beers 1-1.392-14
Group E:
1 Eddy Merckx 4-2.500-18
2 Yusuke Mori 2-1.296-9
3 Rui Costa 0-1.020-4
Group F:
1 Jae-Ho Cho 4-1.860-14
2 Duc Anh Chien Nguyen 2-1.575-11
3 Juan Carlos Del Salto 0-0.586-4
Group G:
1 Quyet Chien Tran 4-1,818-12
2 Jacob Sörensen 2-1777-7
3 Ruben Legazpi 0-1.500-5
Group H:
1 Sameh Sidhom 4-1.481-8
2 Gwendal Maréchal 2-1.048-6
3 Mohamed Abdin 0-1.125-7
Group I:
1 Nikos Polychronopoulos 4-1.568-15
2 Murat Naci Coklu 2-1.400-9
3 Tatsuo Arai 0-0.725-6
Group J:
1 Jérémy Bury 3-1.538-9
2 Pedro Gonzalez 2-1.340-6
3 Jan Ales 1-0.929-14
Group K:
1 HaengJik Kim 4-1.860-7
2 Erick Tellez 2-1.000-6
3 Yasser Shehayeb 0-0.920-5
Group L:
1 Martin Horn 4-1.860-10
2 Dion Nelin 2-1.363-6
3 Mauricio Gutierrez 0-1.081-6
The last group matches on Thursday, 11.00:
Heo-Vera
Blomdahl-Forthomme
MW Cho-Nguyen Quoc
SW Choi-Sánchez.
Jae-Ho Cho with excellent runs 11 and 14 to the best win: 40 in 12 innings vs Duc Anh Chien Nguyen
Eddy Merckx, high on average, best run of the day with 18
Marco Zanetti lost his way at the end and lost to Wan Young Choi
Nikos Polychronopoulos started attack with 15 against Murat Naci Coklu
Wan-Young Choi, better final rush than Zanetti
Dick Jaspers, among the top five on average after prerounds
Martin Horn takes group win in match against Dion Nelin
HaengJik Kim, decent group win after beating Tellez
Sung-Won Choi started with 11, Michael Nilsson made an excellent come-back to draw
Jan Ales, last in his group, despite great run of 14