SHARM EL SHEIKH - Torbjörn Blomdahl remains the undisputed record holder after the 2019 World Cup cycle with his number of victories in the annual tournament cycle. The Swede, reigning world champion in the most popular discipline three cushion, won the cycle eleven times in total and leads the rankings followed by Dick Jaspers with 6 wins, Frédéric Caudron with 5, Dani Sánchez with 4 and Raymond Ceulemans with 3 victories. Dick Jaspers was crowned the 2019 winner this Saturday night in Sharm El Sheikh, second was Tayfun Tasdemir ahead of Marco Zanetti and Eddy Merckx. Blomdahl is also the record holder with the number of wins in individual World Cups. He was the best in 44 tournaments, topping the list ahead of Jaspers with 25, Caudron 21, Sánchez 12, Merckx with 11 and Ceulemans 9.
Marco Zanetti won the last World Cup in Sharm El Sheikh this weekend with a historical average: 2,718. That is the fourth best average ever played in a World Cup. Dani Sánchez is the record holder with 2,777, Blomdahl, Sánchez and Caudron played 2,739 before over a cycle with 5 World Cups. Marco Zanetti achieved the average in three matches for the group stage in the main tournament and 4 knock-out matches.
Dick Jaspers was the World Cup cycle 2019 winner gaining 224 points, followed by Tasdemir with 214, Zanetti 212, Merckx 206 and HaengJik Kim 166. The Dutch world's number 1 achieved his best results this year in Porto (winner), Sharm El Sheikh (2nd), Veghel (5th) and Ho Chi Minh (9th). Jaspers achieved 2,055 on average over seven tournaments. The record is in the hands of Frédéric Caudron, who finished 2,176 in the 2018 cycle. Dick Jaspers finished 2,100 in seven tournaments in 2016, Dani Sánchez 2,035 in six tournaments in 2015.
The World Cups cycle is held from 1986 onwards. Raymond Ceulemans won the first two editions, Torbjörn Blomdahl started his long series of successes in 1988 with 1,694 on average over six tournaments of which he won three times. The cycle was interrupted for several years by the BWA tournaments, which merged with the UMB World Cups in the last years towards 2000. Three times, a double winner of the World Cup cycle was on stage: in 1995 with Dani Sánchez for the UMB tournaments and Torbjörn Blomdahl for the BWA, in 1996 the Portuguese Jorge Theriaga (UMB) and Blomdahl (BWA), in 1997 Jaspers won his first for the BWA and German Christian Rudolph for UMB. The cycle covered four tournaments in the first year (1986), in Paris, Brussels, Berlin and Valkenburg. That number later grew to five, six and seven, with a peak in 1997 with nine in total (4 BWA, 5 UMB).
The cities that organized the most individual World Cups were Hurghada (13), Oosterhout and Porto (10), Berlin (9), Istanbul and Antalya (8), Antwerp (6), Sluiskil, Suwon, Ho Chi Minh, Seoul, Tokyo , Palma and Guri (all 5). Other famous world cities such as Paris and Las Vegas were four times organizers, Bogota 2.
Seven organizations are on the calendar for 2020: Antalya, Ho Chi Minh, Blankenberge, Porto, Veghel, Seoul and Hurghada. The organization in Blankenberge is uncertain and could be replaced by Antwerp or Las Vegas. The rules will be adjusted starting from the first World Cup in Antalya: the matches go to 50 points instead of 40 from the main tournament, with 4 timeouts per game and a 30-second shotclock.
The winners of the World Cup cycle since 1986:
Torbjörn Blomdahl 11
Dick Jaspers 6
Frédéric Caudron 5
Dani Sanchez 4
Raymond Ceulemans 3
Ludo Dielis 1
Sang Chun Lee 1
Jorge Theriaga 1
Christian Rudolph 1.
The ranking of individual World Cups wins:
1 Torbjörn Blomdahl 44
2 Dick Jaspers 25
3 Frédéric Caudron 21
4 Dani Sánchez 12
5 Eddy Merckx 11
6 Raymond Ceulemans 9
7 Semih Sayginer 6
8 Sang Chun Lee 5
9 Marco Zanetti 4
10 Ludo Dielis, Nobuaki Kobayashi and HaengJik Kim 3
Dutch world's nr. 1 Dick Jaspers winner of the World Cup cycle in 2019
The tourist cicyt Hurghada in Egypt is the organizer of the most World Cups in history: 13