BLOIS - The first day at the World Junior Under-22 three cushion championship in Blois, France, has given an idea of the top talents who will compete for the world title in three days' time. Turkey's Seymen Ozbas, Korean Myeong Gyu Oh and Frenchmen Tangui Duriez and Nathan Legendre stood out above the rest on the first day of play with high-quality matches. Turkish champion Ozbas led the rankings after the preliminary rounds with the maximum four match points and 1,923 on average. In his matches, he won over German Lucas Egert (25-7 in 14) and Czech Nicolas Cermak 25-7, in 12 innings.
That announced him as one of the top favorites for the title, which was won last year by Myeong Gyu Oh, who now also had a flawless start with 4 match points and 1.515. In his group, the Asian talent beat Nathan Legendre in a top match 25-23 in 10, with averages 2,500 and 2,300 for both players. Two of the three players move on from the eight groups, so the Frenchman will also advance to the knockouts.
Tangui Duriez, another French player, was sure of qualification early on after first beating Korean Yeongyun Jo 25-11 in 17 and in his next appearance winning over Turk Ceylan 25-10 in 14, giving Duriez an average of 1,612 (run 8).
The other Korean, Hwa Woo Cho, was also a strong starter with 25-16 in 13 against Colombian Insignares. Cho's second game was much less. He won by one point difference against Portuguese Santos in 28, dropping his average to 1.219.
Dutchman Joris van ‘t Zelfden showed two faces after making the long trip from China. In his first game, he shone 25-14 in 15 innings against the first Egyptian in his group: Badr Tabak. The shining match in that first round had a bad sequel. The Dutchman lost 25-11 in 22 to Muhamed Khaled, the second Egyptian, to finish last in the group (two match points, 0.972). For Joris van ‘t Zelfden, that means he was eliminated right away and he may return to China again.
Amir Ibraimov remained unbeaten with four match points and 1.250, Georgios Tsokantas with four points and 1.000. Khaled won his group with 1.021, Oliveto with 1.063 and Cho with 1.219.
The players who are out of the tournament are: Daniel Kristiansen, Ryusei Miyamoto, Nicolas Cermak, Joris van ‘t Zelfden, Toon Bollansee, Goncalo Santos, Kevin Quintero and Mustafa Oguz Ceylan.
The highest in average were Seymen Ozbas with 1.923 and Tangui Duriez with 1.612. The lowest in average were Ryusei Miyamoto with 0.239 and Toon Bollansee with 0.482.
The matches for the first round of knock-outs (with the resounding poster Oh-Jo):
Ozbas-Egert
Khaled-Akkoca
Cho-Sanchez
Ibraimov-Tabak
Oh-Jo
Tsokantas-Insignares
Oliveto-Legendre
Duriez-Morales.
Korean Myeong Gyu Oh launched the World's with 25 in 10 innings