LINT – The second day atthe World Cup in Belgium was just underway, and the first big guns from Asian countries already found their way to the Belgian arena. The young Vietnamese Van Tai Nguyen, relatively unknown but remarkably strong at last year's World Championship in his own country, outplayed Pedro Piedrabuena 30-11 in 10 innings after starting 19-0 in 4 innings, including a decisive 12. Korean Beom Yeol Lee had an even better final score, and with Nguyen Chi Long, three Asians finished in the top three.
The American champion Piedrabuena, one of the most experienced players in this phase, peaked against Nguyen after six zeros with a 9, but it was his only glancing blow in the match. The Vietnamese was the first sniper in this World Cup, but had sent his shadow. On the second day, Peter De Backer was the only Belgian to survive to the next round.
Van Tai Nguyen, one of thousands Nguyens in the Vietnamese stronghold, played in last year's World Championships in Binh Thuan. In the first group stage, he defeated Berkay Karakurt 40-34 in 20 and Nick Polychronopoulos 40-34 in 30 innings. In the next round of 32, Nguyen also defeated Miyashita (40-41 in 43), and in the next round, he faced Jose Juan Garcia of Colombia, but lost (50-28 in 19). He hasn't had any impressive results in World Cups yet, but his reputation preceded him this week heading into the Belgian event.
The same applies to Korean Beon Yeol Lee, who had to start on Monday and finished in the top three with Steven van Acker and Dionisis Tsokantas. Lee also impressed in his second appearance. He defeated Turk Ismet Esen 30-17 in 15 innings after a run of 14 in the 13th inning. Later in the day, he also knocked out Japanese former world champion Ryuuji Umeda 30-26 in 16 innings. That gave the Korean daily winner an average of 1.935 and a run of 14.
The total field of 16 group winners consisted of 4 Vietnamese, 3 Germans, 2 Spaniards, 2 Colombians, 2 Koreans, 1 Frenchman, 1 Dane, and 1 Belgian.
At the end of the day, the Belgians were cheering only for Peter De Backer. From the others, Dany Boutet, Paul Wallerand, and Ronny Brants were eliminated with 3 match points and narrowly missed qualifying. Jef Philipoom, Henk Blauwblomme, and Steven van Acker, the Monday winner after a poor start to the day, were eliminated with 2 match points.
Viet Hoang Minh Thon was a mediocre group winner with 1.224, Quoc Thuan Pham won the group with Abu Tayeh and Marco Morales with two match points and 1.406, after being soundly defeated by Abu Tayeh 30-15 in 15.
Nguyen Chi Long defeated Frenchman Cédric Melnytschenko 30-20 in 18 to win the group, while Germans Ronny Lindemann and Tobias Bouerdick both finished their groups with the same score: 3 points and 1.276. Daniel Sainz-Pardo and Joseba Escribano (with 0.945) upheld the Spanish reputation. Lukas Mortensen played a strong round with 4 points and 1.538, and Do Hyeon Kim eliminated previous day's winner Steven van Acker.
The daily score on Tuesday:
- Beom Yeol Lee 4-1,935-14
- From Tai Nguyen 4-1,875-12
- Nguyen Chi Long 4-1.621-6
- Lukas Mortensen 4-1.538-11
- Peter De Backer 4-1.428-6
- Do Hyeon Kim 4-1.363-8
- Ali Ibraimov 4-1,363-7
- Daniel Sainz-Pardo 4-1.333-6
- Huberney Cataño 4-1.276-9
- Pedro Gonzalez 4-1,176-7
- Ronny Lindemann 3-1.276-7
- Tobias Bouerdick 3-1.276-5
- Viet Hoang Minh Thon 3-1.224-7
- Patrice Pinard 3-0.731-6
- Quoc Thuan Pham 2-1.406-6
- Joseba Escribano 2-0.945-10
Huberney Cataño
Second day's winner Beom Yeol Lee