3-Cushion
SHARM EL SHEIKH - The World Cup arena said goodbye to the last of five ladies in the event, who returned home without losing. Jeffrey Jorissen and Robinson Morales were rewarded with a huge applause for the best games (both 30 in 10) and the best run (18 for the Colombian) on this third World Cup day. The same Jorissen was the victim of a tragic knock-down in the later evening: Turk Tolgahan Kiraz dethroned Jorissen with a miraculous final rush. The Dutchman, who was the revelation of the Veghel World Cup two weeks ago, came out of his first day as a substitute, but had an impressive comeback in the tournament. Jorissen started with a brilliant 30-11 in 10 innings in a match against Berkay Karakurt, to whom he had lost the day before. In the end of that match, Jorissen demonstrated his high class with a run of 8 and two closing runs of 7 and 6.
The start of his next match, facing another Turk, Tolgahan Kiraz, was even more excellent: Jorissen started with 0 and made 11 and 10 in the second and third inning. The interval at 21-4 seemed unapproachable, but Kiraz, a Turkish player who is not unknown for a long time, came back fantastically: first with 5, 8 and 2, making it 23-19 behind, but after an improbable setback by Jorissen (4x 0, 4x 1) finally to a victory with 30-27 in 12 innings. The result: Jorissen eliminated with 2 points and 2,590 average, Kiraz deservedly through with 4 points and 2,000.
Three Turks finished on top of the day's ranking: Tolgahan Kiraz ahead of Gökhan Salman and Ahmet Alp. Robinson Morales and Choong Bok Lee completed the top five. In the top sixteen, three Frenchmen finished: Jean Reverchon, Grégory Le Deventec and Gwendal Maréchal, another fourth Turk, Muhammed Cavusoglu, one of four Dutchmen, Barry van Beers, two Koreans and two Colombians, of whom Robinson Morales made the wonderful run of 18.
Therese Klompenhouwer, the world champion, left the tournament somewhat unhappy. The Dutch ladystarted with a 30-25 win against Hakan Celik and battled Gwendal Maréchal, the huge French talent, for a place in the next round. Two times, Therese came back from a deficit in the match, in the last inning, at 30-28, she equalized to 30-30: The two players finished equal on average (1,153), the bad luck for Therese was that her French opponent had a better run: 8 against 4. So, two Dutchmen, Klompenhouwer and Jorissen, finished on places 1 and 2 of the loser's group, but no reserves were allowed for the next session.
Ji Hun Ahn is aiming for a stunt again like in Veghel and defeated in his group Frenchman Kevin Vasseur and the Egyptian Ragay Henry. Gökhan Salman is back and underlined that with a nice victory over Salah Farouk: 30-7 in 11 innings. Robinson Morales demolished the Egyptian Mohsen Fouda (once a winner against Eddy Merckx): now he lost 30-3 in 10. The Dutch champion Ludo Kools was eliminated after his loss against Cavusoglu 30-29. Kools missed the equalizer and was badly punished for that.
Jean Reverchon made a strong impression against Ronny Lindemann and Claus Maurer. Mauricio Gutierrez also booked such a victory with 30-3, but =in 19 innings against Khaled Salem. Peter De Backer started strongly with 30 in 18 against Soares, but made a slip in the last innings against Gerhard Kostistansky: 30-28 loss. And then there was a third 30-3 for Ahmet Alp against Egyptian home player Ahmed Emam in 19 innings.
The pleasantly warm Sharm El Sheikh can prepare for the last qualification on the way to the main draw with 32 players. With twelve groups, the players start Wednesday (10.00) with the last, precious ticket at stake.
Jung Han Heo is in that round the finalist of the World Cup in Veghel, Jacob Sörensen the star player in the German Bundesliga this week, Can Capak the tournament winner in Turkey, Dion Nelin, Roland Forthomme, Nikos Polychronopoulos and Antonio Montes feared Europeans, Javier Teran and Jose Juan Garcia from South America and Jun Tae Kim, semi-finalist in Veghel, from South Korea.
The ranking on Tuesday, third day:
1 Tolgahan Kiraz (Turkey) 4-2,000-8
2 Gökhan Salman (Turkey) 4-1,818-7
3 Ahmet Alp (Turkey) 4-1,764-7
4 Robinson Morales (Colombia) 4-1.666-18
5 Choong Bok Lee (Korea) 4-1.538-6
6 Jean Reverchon (France) 4-1,304-11
7 Mauricio Gutierrez (Colombia) 4-1.304-6
8 Jose Maria Mas (Spain) 4-1,124-6
9 Gerhard Kostistanski (Austria) 4-1,153-10
10 Dong Hoon Kim (Korea) 4-1,153-5
11 Barry van Beers (Netherlands) 4-1,132-7
12 Gregory Le Deventec (France) 4-1.090-8
13 Muhammed Cavusoglu (Turkey) 4-1.090-5
14 Ji Hun Ahn (Korea) 4-1,053-9
15 Gwendal Maréchal (France) 3-1.153-8
16 Jan Ales (Czech Republic) 2-1,483-6
Reserves:
1 Therese Klompenhouwer 3-1.153-4
2 Jeffrey Jorissen 2-2.590-11
3 William Oh 2-1.380-14
4 Peter De Backer 2-1.234-6
5 Myeong Jong Cha 2-1.125-5.
The Turkish player Tolgahan Kiraz, who pushed Jeffrey Jorissen from the World Cup stage
Therese Klompenhouwer felt just outside the group winners after a draw against Gwendal Maréchal
Gwendal Maréchal, with a draw in the match with Therese Klompenhouwer to next round
Korean Ji Hun Ahn, again one of the World Cup star players
Frenchman Jean Reverchon, unbeaten in a two days survival battle
Two world referees in the World Cup arena in Egypt: Antoine Chart from the homeland, Paul Brekelmans from the Netherlands
The sixteen groups for the last qualification day:
Poule A: Muhammed Cavusoglu, Grégory Le Deventec, Jung Han Heo
Poule B: Ji Hun Ahn, Dion Nelin, Barry van Beers
Poule C: Gwendal Maréchal, Dong Hoon Kim, Roland Forthomme
Poule D: Jan Ales, Gerhard Kostistansky, Nikos Polychronopoulos
Poule E: Peter Ceulemans, Jose Maria Mas, Pedro Gonzalez
Poule F: Michael Nilsson, Mauricio Gutierrez, Jun Tae Kim
Poule G: Rui Costa, Jean Reverchon, Mohamed Abdin
Poule H: Ahmed Abdallah, Choong Bok Lee, Antonio Montes
Poule I: Jacob Haack Sörensen, Robinson Morales, Can Capak
Poule J: Dustin Jäschke, Ahmet Alp, Wan Young Choi
Poule K: Jose Juan Garcia, Gökhan Salman, Arnim Kahofer
Poule L: Javier Teran, Tolgahan Kiraz, Chang Hoon Seo.