Billiards in a wonderful ambiance with 30 sports

WROCLAW - The opening ceremony at the World Games in Wroclaw (Poland), with a spectacular show, was the starting point for eleven days of sports in the disciplines without the Olympic status. The billiard players in the most popular discipline, three cushion, start tomorrow (Wednesday, 10.00) with sixteen players in a tournament that will be decided on Sunday. The playing room is the Centennial Hall, quite a distance from the centre of Wroclaw, with a capacity of 600 spectators. The first message from the billiards room had a sad tone: Sung-Won Choi, the Korean ex-world champion, had to cancel after the death of his father.

The World Games are organized every four years by the International World Games Association under the auspices of the International Olympic Committee. At the World Games, more than 3000 athletes come into the arenas from 110 different countries. Besides three cushion, snooker and pool are also part of the schedule. These disciplines are played in the same arena.

The billiard disciplines are organized by the WCBS, the World Continental of Billiards Sports, to which the three disciplines belong. The Englishman Jason Ferguson leads the umbrella organization. On behalf of the discipline carom, Farouk Barki and Fernando Requena are board members.

Delegations of the International Olympic Committee will watch all disciplines during the World Games to assess whether there is a chance of promotion to the real Olympic Games.

The billiard tables are from the Min brand, the cloths from the Andy C90 brand and the balls from Cyclop. Those are Chinese products coming from pool billiard, that want to be involved in the carom market. The balls have two round dots instead of three and further only squares, because the traditional dots are owned by Simonis. The score system is also quite unknown.

The atmosphere in the days prior to the three-cushion tournament was very relaxed. The Dutchman Paul Brekelmans, with his countryman Willem Hofman referee at this tournament, speaks of a warm welcome. ,,The Polish people are friendly and hard workers. And we haven't seen anything of a strict surveillance. We haven't seen any soldiers or policemen. The controls are strict, done by volunteers.''

Dick Jaspers, one of the former winners: ,,Wroclaw is a beautiful city, in a country we hardly know. The organization looks good. The playing room is beautiful, only the match table is clamped between the pool and snooker tables, which can be difficult. Other sports are also organized in our complex. I'm sure it's worth checking out there too.''

The Belgian Eddy Leppens, in Wroclaw several days already: ,,It's a beautiful event, as far as I can see now. The city is beautiful and fairly large. We have a separate practice room and everything is well organized. It's great to meet all the different athletes, walking around in the city in the colors of their country.''

The Italian title defender Marco Zanetti: ,,I arrived late last night. Anyway, it's a big organization. We are playing in an area together with other sports. A lot of volunteers are working for us and my first impression is very positive. And everything is very strict. Without a badge, you have no entry to have food for free, no drinks, nothing.''

The Japanese Ryuji Umeda: ,,It all looks very good, with a beautiful playing room and good accommodation. Unfortunately, the city is pretty far away: twenty minutes by bus from the hotel and the billiards arena.''

The Egyptian Sameh Sidhom: "The Poles are nice and very helpful people. And the event is amazing: I've already seen three other sports, bowling, boules and gymnastics.''

The Pool Mateusz Sniegocki is the substitute for Sung-Won Choi.

The first matches, in the eighth finals:

Wednesday:
Dani Sánchez-Dawid Tonojan
Hugo Patino-Javier Palazón
Quyet Chien Tran-Huberney Catano
Sameh Sidhom-Eric Tellez

Thursday:
Marco Zanetti-Kostas Kokkoris
Mateusz Sniegocki-Pedro Piedrabuena
Eddy Leppens-Can Capak
Dick Jaspers-Ryuji Umeda.

The main stadium during the opening ceremony

Dani Sánchez, the world champion, during the players meeting

Dick Jaspers in the orange colours of his country

The stands in the arena with Pedro Piedrabuena, Marco Zanetti, Eddy Leppens and Ryuji Umeda

The Dutch referees Willem Hofman and Paul Brekelmans

Ryuji Umeda's badge for the World Games