GOYANG - 44-year-old Dong Koong Kang was once the Number 2 at the World championship three cushion in Bordeaux and is now one of the star players in the PBA tour. The robust Korean won this season's first PBA tournament (Woori Financial Capital) on Monday in a final against 16-year-old Won-young Kim: 4-2 (averages 2.026/1.757). The numbers three and four on the podium were Europeans Burak Hashas (Turkey) and David Martinez (Spain). Dong Koong Kang is the first leader of the standings. He earned 70,000 euros and 100,000 ranking points for the first ranking.
The final podium at the first PBA tour got a very youthful look with Kang (44), WY Kim (16), Hashas (18) and Martinez (33). The women's tournament was won by Se-yeon Kim, exactly 1,000 days after her last win in the PBA. The Korean lady earned 28.000 euros first prize, which has been increased for this season. In the final, she played against one of the newcome players, Kyoung-jin Im.
Dong Koong Kang won a PBA tournament once before in the final against Juan David Zapata and also lost a final against this Spaniard. Once, Dong Koong Kang gained fame when he won a well-paid tournament in his own country: the LGU cup, in which he finished ahead of Dick Jaspers, Torbjörn Blomdahl and Frédéric Caudron. The victory was remarkable because Kang was rushed to the hospital with severe abdominal pain the day before the final. He returned quickly, played anyway and won over Dick Jaspers. In addition, Dong Koong Kang won a World Cup in UMB once (2013) and was defeated by Blomdahl at the World championship in Bordeaux in 2015.
In this first PBA tournament, Dong Koong Kang was the player left after a race with 7 wins after starting with 128 players. In the final stage, he defeated Antonio Montes in the last 16, 3-1 and 1,926, in the quarterfinals Jung-ju Shin 3-2 (1,667), in the semifinals David Martinez 4-1 (2,094) and in the final Won Young Choi 4-2 (2,026). In the PBA tour, bankshots points are counted for two points: Dong Koong Kang made a total of 112 bankshot points over 7 matches.
In the final, Young-won Kim started 15-4, Kang tied 15-4 and Kim took another lead 15-13. The last three sets went to Kang with 15-10, 15-13 and 15-8.
The top earners in this first men's tournament were Dong Koong Kang (100 million Koran won, 70,000 euros), Young-won Kim (34 million), Martinez and Hashas (10 million). Among the Europeans, Murat Naci Coklu, Antonio Montes and Eddy Leppens earned 1.5 million.