GURI - The famous Korean player Choong Bok Lee is back in the World Cup circuit after a pretty long stop in his career. The 46-year-old former Asian champion and LGU Cup winner in 2016 (60,000 euros) is the star player in the field of starters at the Guri World Cup, where he played an excellent match on the second day with 30 caroms in ten innings . With his 273rd place on the world ranking, Lee had to start in the early pre-rounds. The moderate first match brought him to a total average of 1,666. Vietnamese Huynh Phuong Linh did better with 4 match points and 1,875. Belgian Wesley de Jaeger (4 points, 1,538), Japanese Masataka (4, 1,538) and Korean Ji Hun Ahn (4, 1,500) completed the day's top five.
Two Colombians, Mauricio Aguilar and Carlos Campino, who participated in the unapproved Feria de las Floras tournament in Medellin and are waiting a suspension in their own country, were still admitted to start in this World Ci[ and finished in the top ten of the daily ranking on Tuesday. Japanese ex-world champion Orie Hida and Sruong Pheavy from Cambodia were among the best-known players eliminated. Japanese Satoru Yoneyama was eliminated, but had the best run of the day, 14.
Wesley de Jaeger confirmed the form that he demonstrated in the Veghel World Cup last week with a 30 points match in 7 innings. The Belgian sub top player was pretty impressive in his two matches facing Vietnamese Thanh Phuoc Nguyen and Korean Su Yeong Park with 30-19 in 20 and 30-18 in 19. ''My start was solid, no high runs, but a regular. I had a strong start in my second game with a run of nine," De Jaeger commented. Volkan Cetin from the Netherlands, Daniel Peña from Spain and Grégory Le Deventec from France were the other three Europeans among the sixteen group winners.
Tomorrow, Wednesday, the, field will be enriched by luminaries from the previous World Cup in Veghel, such as Antonio Montes, Jun-Tae Kim and Therese Klompenhouwer, the ladies world champion who played a match with runs of 10 and 12 in her own country.
The day winners on Tuesday:
1 Nguyen HPL 4-1,875-10
2 Lee 4-1,666-8
3 De Jaeger 4-1,538-9
4 Kanbara 4-1,538-5
5 Ahn 4-1,500-5
6 Cha 4-1,428-10
7 Oh 4-1,395-5
8 Aguilar 4-1,363-7
9 Campino 4-1,363-4
10 Nguyen CT 4-1,071-6
11 Nakajima 4-1,034-5
12 Cetin 4-0,882-7
13 Phan 4-0,857-5
14 Peña 4-0,681-4
Le Deventec 3-0,869-5
16 Jung 2-1,527-6.
The most striking groups for Wednesday:
Group A: Jun Tae Kim, Ho Suk Jung, Javier Teran
Group C: Tran Thanh Tu Nguyen, Daniel Peña, Barry van Beers
Group D: Chang Hoon Seo, Jose-Maria Mas, Van Trung Phan
Group E: Duy Trun Nguyen, Volkan Cetin, Hugo Patiño
Group G: Peter Ceulemans, Bernard Baudoin, Cong Thanh Nguyen
Group H: Carlos Campino, Gülsen Degener, Tatsuo Arai
Group I: Mauricio Aguilar, Tolgahan Kiraz, Kevin Vasseur
Group J: Takeshima O, Ahmet Alp, Jung Soo Oh
Group K: Kostas Kokkoris, Ronald van Geyt, Myeong Jong Cha
Group L: Ji Hun Ahn, Antonio Montes, Sylvia Eckel
Group N: Wesley de Jaeger, Jean van Erp, Turgay Orak
Group O: Therese Klompenhouwer, Choong Bok Lee, Quang Hao Truong
Group P: Gökhan Salman, Mehmet Goren, Huynh Phuong Linh Nguyen.
Two Korean guns in the second round: Choong-Bok Lee and Ji Hun Ahn
Belgian player Wesley de Jaeger, in the day's top 3 after his highlight match in Veghel World Cup
Sruong Pheavy, one of the best lady players, is out, like Orie Hida from Japan