SLUISKIL - For once, Sluiskil was the center of the billiards world again, and The Netherlands were the proud hosts of a world championship. The WC three cushion for juniors was brought to a climax today (Sunday) with a final between sixteen year old Korean Myung Woo Cho and nineteen year old Frenchman Adrien Tachoire. The Frenchman emerged victorious, to succeed Colombian Juan Jose Garcia. His last point was followed by a burst of emotion. Adrien pointed his cue to the ceiling, shouted from joy and showed his emotions to the audience. Moments later, he sat down and hid his tearful face in his hands for minutes. As he regained his composure, he embraced his coach and his girlfriend. Tachoire lives in Paris, learned how to play billiards from his dad, followed a sports education and currently works in a sports store. His major success so far was his runner-up finish in the European Championship, behind Spaniard Antonio Montes.
The WC in Sluiskil held even more in store for him. In the semi he defeated Turkish title favorite Berkay Karakurt, and in the final Myung Woo Cho: 35-25 in 28 innings. The Korean, who was never really in the match, could not hold back the tears when it was over. The tournament in the small city in Zeeland, where no less than five World Cups were held in recent history, as well as the WC (Dani Sanchez, 2010), was now the stage for the world's greatest young talents.
The conclusion must be, that the future of 3-cushion can be found in more places than just Korea. To the astonishment of many colleagues and spectators, the two Korean players who made it into the semis admitted to a practice regime of nine hours a day, from an early age on. For Europe and Latin America, that is unthinkable. Most of the other players in this championship are busy with studies or have a job.
And still, some Europeans can compete with the Asians, like this Adrien Tachoire, who started off on a modest level but regrouped brilliantly and showed his best on the two final days. He is the first Frenchman ever to win a world title in 3-cushion. The other European in the semis, Turkish Berkay Karakurt, had the best start of the field, but he weakened towards the end and had almost no reply to Tachoire. European champion Antonio Montes had been eliminated earlier, and so were Japanese Yusuke Mori and Belgians Andy de Bondt and Wesley van Apers. The group draw was unfortunate for Yusuke Mori and Manuel Lindao, who ended up in the strongest flight with Berkay Karakurt and Adrien Tachoire.
Two of those four could not advance. Myung Woo Cho and Adrien Tachoire made it to the final with victories over Jun Tae Kim and Berkay Karakurt. The Frenchman surprised his opponent with a quick start, to lead 14-9. Berkay Karakurt got back into it once, with a run of 7 (16-14), but again Tachoire took the initiative running six to lead 22-17, ending it on 35-25 in 26 innings (1.346/0.961, runs 6 and 7). The Korean clash between Myung Woo Cho and Jun Tae Kim was won by the youngest player of the tournament, 16-year old Cho, by 35-26 in 32 innings.
The very high level demonstrated by many players in the flight stage, was gone in the semi-finals. The two players recently met in the final of a Korean Grand Prix, and played a draw. This time, they had trouble finding their groove. Myung Woo Cho dominated, Kim repaired once with a run of six (to 32-26) but Cho ended it at 35-26 (1.094/0.812, runs four and six). A remarkable result on this WC: the highest general average in the field was for Manuel Lindao from Ecuador, who lost all three of his flight matches and ended last in the qualifications, but with a 1.513 average. The WC in Sluiskil - "one of the European capitals of 3-cushion", according to Santos Chocron of the Dutch federation - had plenty of spectators all week.
The organization had planned demonstrations by Frédéric Caudron, Dick Jaspers, Eddy Merckx, Jean Paul de Bruijn and young artistic wizard Jop de Jong. Billiards legend Raymond Ceulemans was one of the guests of honor on the final day.
Final standings of this WC: (points made, innings, average, high run):
1 Adrien Tachoire (Frankrijk) 170-155-1.096-6 2 Myung Woo Cho (Korea) 170-141-1.205-6 3 Berkay Karakurt (Turkey) 135-97-1.391-8 4 Jun Tae Kim (Korea) 136-114-1.192-9 5 Alexis Rouaud (France) 110-129-0.852-5 6 Joao Ferreira (Portugal) 104-91-1.142-6 7 Antonio Montes (Spain) 97-91-1.065-7 8 Wesley van Apers (Belgium) 89-118-0.754-4 9 Andy de Bondt (Belgium) 74-80-0.925-7 10 Yusuke Mori (Japan) 68-56-1.214-6 11 Jefferson Pena (Colombia) 55-70-0.785-9 12 Michael Vink (Netherlands) 43-73-0.589-4 13 Manuel Lindao (Ecuador) 56-37-1.513-6 14 Jordy de Kruijf (Netherlands) 46-58-0.793-6 15 Carlos Anguita (Spain) 35-59-0.593-3 16 Victor Montesdeoca (Ecuador) 60-117-0.512-4.