3-Cushion
VIERSEN - The Belgians Eddy Merckx and Frédéric Caudron defend their world title this week in the championship for national teams, which traditionally will be held in Viersen, Germany. The tournament starts on Thursday, February 21 and ends on Sunday, February. 24.
There is a field with 24 teams of two players, divided into eight groups. The Europeans are in the majority. Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela are playing for South America. South Korea and Japan play for Asia.
Many of the main players, who played the Antalya World Cup, will travel straight to Viersen for the honor of their country. They show up in Germany after a few days of rest.
The Belgians, with their two world class players Merckx and Caudron, are the big favorites. The competition will be very tough, including Sweden, with the famous coule Torbjörn Blomdahl and Michael Nilsson. On the honor role of the World champion, the Swedish team took seven wins between 2000 and 2009.
The Turks grabbed the gold medal two times in recent three years. They come to the start with Tayfun Tasdemir and Murat Naci Coklu. The Netherlands will send an A-team with Dick Jaspers and Raimond Burgman, Kyung-Roul Kim and Jung-Han Heo play for South Korea.
Dani Sanchez and Ruben Legazpi aim for the top spots on behalf of Spain. The reigning European champion French, with Jérémy Bury and Jérôme Barbeillon is a feared opponent as well.
The champions of ten recent years:
2012: Belgium (Caudron Merckx) 1.884 average
2011: Turkey (Tasdemir-Cenet) 1.510
2010: Turkey (Yüksel-Coklu) 1.710
2009: Sweden (Nilsson-Blomdahl) 1.769
2008: Sweden (Nilsson-Blomdahl) 1.664
2007: Sweden (Nilsson-Blomdahl) 1.537
2006 Sweden: (Nilsson-Blomdahl) 1.421
2005: Sweden (Nilsson-Blomdahl)
2004: Turkey (Sayginer-Tasdemir)
In the group stage, the matches are played to 30 caroms. From the quarter-finals to 40 points with an equalizing inning and possibly penalties.
The composition of the flights:
Group A: Belgium (Merckx/Caudron), Colombia (J. Morales/Ortiz), Italy (Oddo/Mingiardi)
Group B: Germany A (Horn/Rudolph), Switzerland (Hendriksen/Danielsson), Luxembourg (Hamm/Templers)
Group C: Spain (Sanchez/Legazpi), Czech Republic (Bohac/Novak), Egypt (Sidhom/El Messery)
Group D: South Korea (K. R. Kim/Heo), Portugal (Costa/Ferreira), Venezuela (Romero/Canton)
Group E: Sweden (Blomdahl/Nilsson), Austria (Efler/Kahofer), Ecuador (Teran/Rubio)
Group E: Netherlands A (Jaspers/Burgman), Japan (Takeshima/Arai), Belgium B (Forton/Mottet)
Group G: Turkey (Tasdemir/Coklu), Vietnam (Nguyen/Ngo), Germany B (S.Galla/Lindemann)
Group H: Denmark (Carlsen/Andersen), France (Bury/Barbeillon) Netherlands B (De Bruijn/Van Beers).
Schedule:
Thursday 21:
11.00: Opening ceremony
First Round
12.00: French-Netherlands B, Vietnam-Germany B
14.00: Japan-Belgium B, Austria-Ecuador
16.00: Portugal-Venezuela. Czech Republic-Egypt
18.00: Luxembourg-Switzerland. Colombia-Italy
Second round
Losers against third team in the groups.
Friday 22:
Continue; losers against third team in group.
3rd round
Winners session one
18:00:
Saturday 23:
Continue qualifications.
16.30: Quarter finals
20.00: Quarter finals
Sunday 24:
11.00: Semifinals
14.00: Final.