3-Cushion
GURI - The fist short and powerfully in the air, the laughter onher face and there she was ... Therese Klompenhouwer. For the first time in all the years of World Cups a lady in the main tournament, with the top 32 players in the world... a great moment in the history of three cushion.
Two players from the sub top in global three cushion outplayed in one day. Savas Bulut, Turkish giant and O Takeshima, the small Japanese, who had eliminated Dick Jaspers at the World championship in Porto two years ago.
Therese was there, with all the great players during the draw for the final rounds. She already said on the eve of the final qualifying: ,,I'm not afraid of anyone...'' So strongly does she feel in the weeks before the ladies World championships in Turkey will be played.
The Dutch lady feels in a fantastic form, which she showed the Korean crowd their opponent who could not stop her on the way to the unique performance. Savas Bulut certainly not, O Takeshima could threaten her a bit at the end, but was beaten in the final innings.
,,I was trailing 37-30 near the end, but I came up with a run of six just in time'', Therese said. ,,I'm super happy with this result, of course. I actually slept badly last night, but when I woke up, I felt very fit.''
Tomorrow, at the start of the main event, she will play against the Swede Torbjörn Blomdahl, who was paired to Therese in the draw. ,,That's really fantastic'', 
she replied. ,,I've trained with him twice in recent weeks and secretly hoped to play against him.''
What a day it was, for that last qualification. Semih Sayginer who was simply beaten by the Turk Lütfi Cenet and left the tournament through the backdoor after he also lost to Vietnamese Xuan Cuong Ma, to indicate that the Turkish magician still has a long way to go to the world top.
Haeng Jik Kim first showed his power against Ahmet Alp, the Turk beat Nikos Polychronopoulos and in their last group match, Nikos made a run of 15, reached the finish at 40-31, but Haeng Jik made a sensational nine for the draw.
Nguyen Quoc Nguyen won his group with 2.105 ahead of Luis Aveiga with 1.692 and Choong-Bok Lee with 1.914. The South American former junior world champion, Juan Jose Garcia, showed to be a great player for the future. He bested Murat Tüzül and Vietnamese coming man Quyet Chien Tran.
Murat Naci Coklu was the day's best with four match points and 2.352 ahead of Jean Paul de Bruijn 2.162, Quoc Nguyen Nguyen in 2.105 and Huyn Min Seo with 2.008.
Where will it lead to, when the big guns from the world top enter the arena tomorrow?
Roland Forthomme saved his place in the main event at the last minute after a first defeat against Hyun-Suk Kim (40-35 in 22), but with a nice recovery against Duong Anh Vu. The Belgian was the one who slipped into the final rounds with two match points and 1.829 average and two runs of 11.
Six of the twelve players in qualifying were European, one South American (Garcia) and five Asians.
Ramon Rodriguez, Chi Yeon Cho, Ahmet Alp and Luis Aveiga went along as best four losers. Ruben Legazpi, Hyun Suk Kim, Tran Chien Quiet and Jef Philipoom were out of the game, all with averages over 1.600.
Jef Philipoom, who lost to Jean Paul de Bruijn, said: ,,It's really unbelievable what is happening here. Everything is possible in this World Cup, you can play over the two average and still go home.''
The final score of the day:
1 Murat Naci Coklu 4-2.352-9
2 Jean Paul de Bruijn 4-2.162-7
3 Quoc Nguyen Nguyen 4-2.105-6
4 Min Seo Hyun 4-2.000-8
5 Hyung Bum Hwang 4-1.951-8
6 Jose Juan Garcia 4-1.860-8
7 Lütfi Cenet 4-1.632-7
8 Kostas Papakonstantinou 4-1.481-8
9 Therese Klompenhouwer 4-1.333-6
10 Haeng Jik Kim 3-1.860-9
11 Jin Pyo Hong 3-1.632-8
12 Roland Forthomme 2-1.829-11.
The draw for the main event:
11:00 (Korean time, seven hours later than Western Europe):
Caudron-Yoon
De Bruijn Heo
Bury Sánchez
Choi-Kim HaengJik
13:00:
Nguyen Chi Yeon Cho
Kyung-Roul Kim-Teran
Kang-Papakonstantinou
Kasidokostas-Hwang
17:00:
Merckx-Aveiga
Tasdemir-Alp
Jaspers-Garcia
Seo-Cenet
19.00:
Zanetti-Forthomme
Cho-Rodriguez
Coklu-Hong
Klompenhouwer-Blomdahl.