3-Cushion
The two Belgians in the Challenge took the leading positions after two days and the battle for the four final places guarantees an exciting final session. Eddy Merckx pushed up his score to 74 points in 20 innings and tops the group with Martin Horn as the runner-up. The other foursome still has four contenders, who are facing a great final fight. Thanks to a 10-run, Roland Forthomme took the lead in the last part followed by Jun Tae Kim and the two Turks Tayfun Tasdemir and Murat Naci Coklu.
The highest score on the second day was made by Korean Jun Tae Kim, the young Korean who, after a successful period in the junior World championships achieved his best result in the Guri World Cup 2019, where he beat Sung-Won Choi in the quarter finals and then lost to Eddy Merckx in the semi-finals 40-21 in 17. Young Kim, who took revenge for his poor start in the Challenge, finished on the second day with the best run so far (11) and scored 8 and 7 as well. That brought him to a 42 over two sessions, two more than Tayfun Tasdemir on the first day and Eddy Merckx on the second day of the pre-rounds.
s.
Tayfun Tasdemir dropped from first to third place in the session in which six was his best run: Tayfun did not get further than 25 points after 40 on the first day. The other Turkish top player, Murat Naci Coklu, came up after his first match with 30 points with the same score for his second appearance: 60 in total.
The deciding round starts with small margins: Forthomme at 67, Kim at 66, Tasdemir at 65 and Coklu at 60 points. The differences are bigger in the other group. Merckx and Horn are on top with 74 and 54 points, Montes, who had a good finish with runs of 8 and 7, and Heo need a strong final sprint with 47 and 36 points.
The rankings and scores:
Group A:
1 Eddy Merckx (74) 2-1-5-6-4-6-4-5-1-6
2 Martin Horn (54) 5-6-1-3-3-0-3-3-1-6
3 Antonio Montes (47) 1-2-2-3-5-1-2-8-3-7
4 Jung-Han Heo (36) 3-5-1-3-3-4-1-2-1-1
Group B:
1 Roland Forthomme (67) 3-1-3-2-3-2-5-10-4-3
2 Jun Tae Kim (66) 5-2-0-8-7-4-3-1-1-11
3 Tayfun Tasdemir (65) 1-2-3-2-3-1-6-3-1-3
4 Murat Naci Coklu (60) 2-7-2-2-2-4-1-4-5-1.
The young Korean Jun Tae Kim, best run and best day score