3-Cushion
PORTO - With the second World Cup this year, from 6 to July 12 at the Pavillon Dragon Calxa in Porto, the waters inside the world federation (UMB) should be somewhat calmer and bring the attention to the billiards itself. The UMB board came together two weeks ago in Madrid to talk about the future of the organization and the succession of the Belgian Jean-Claude Dupont as the president.
The most important decision was that the General Assembly, the general meeting with the board, the confederations and federations, has been brought forward to January 16, 2016 in Cairo. That meeting must make clear who will be the final successor of Dupont: until then, Fernando Requena from Spain is the interim president.
The current UMB board has the major goal to present the UMB ,,a plan for a promising future with substantially stability''. Before bringing more information to the public, ,,we need to obtain more clarity about the matter'', says Requena. ,,An extra audit has been decided, to be conducted by external auditors concerning the transfer of the administration.''
The World Cup in Porto brings the focus to the billiards and continues the cycle of six tournaments on the calendar this year. Dick Jaspers won the first in Luxor, in the second half of this year the first World Cup is followed by Porto (6-12 July) Hochiminh (10-16 of August), Guri (September 7 to 13), Istanbul (12-18 October) and Hurghada (December 13 to 19).
Torbjörn Blomdahl leads the world ranking for the playerslist in Porto ahead of Sung-Won Choi, Eddy Merckx, Dick Jaspers, Frédéric Caudron, Jae Ho Cho, Marco Zanetti, Daniel Sánchez, Dong Koong Kang, Forthomme, Tayfun Tasdemir and Jean Paul de Bruijn. These are the twelve seeded players.
The wildcards (two of the organizing organization, one from Asia and one for America) are assigned to Pedro Piedrabuena, Chi Yeon Cho and for the organizing federation Rui Costa and Joao Ferreira.
The prize money is the same as before (5.500 for the winner, 3.500 for the number two, 2.200 for the numbers three and four), as well as the number of ranking points to earn.
The official opening ceremony is on Thursday, July 9th after three days of preliminaries. Tournament director is Dr. Joao Manuel Barros, UMB delegate Mr. Farouk Barki, who is also the technical manager. The tournament has a maximum players list of 148, sixteen players are on the reserve list.
The Turkish federation is represented by 26 players, followed by Spain with 24, Portugal with 22 and South Korea with 20.
Two Belgians in the final four last year: Peter Ceulemans (left) and Roland Forthomme.
The final qualifying round on Wednesday has already many well-known names such as Nick Polychronopoulos, Choong-Bok Lee, Sameh Sidhom, Quyet Chien Tran, Hyung Bum Hwang, Murat Naci Coklu, Anh Vu Duong, Jérémy Bury, Javier Palazón, Adnan Yüksel, Murat Tüzül, Jung-Han Heo, Ruben Legazpi, Filippos Kasidokostas, Lütfi Cenet, Quoc Nguyen Nguyen, Riad Nady and Eddy Leppens.
In the first qualifying round on Monday, July 6th, Adrien Tachoire (junior world champion) and Juan David Zapata are scheduled. On the penultimate day of the qualifications among others Jose Maria Mas, Carlos Crespo, Cap Capak and Myung Woo Cho.
On day three (Wednesday, July 8th): Jae Guen Kim, Ahmet Alp, Jef Philipoom, Emrullah Basegmez, Gokhan Salman, Byrol Uymaz, Kostas Papakonstantinou, Semih Sayginer, Arnim Kahofer, Peter Ceulemans, Tolgahan Kiraz, Dinh Nai Ngo en Savas Bulut.