Dutch team and Belgium forerunners in Viersen

VIERSEN - The Dutch and Belgian teams have reached the knockouts as forerunners at the World Nations Championship in Viersen. The Netherlands finished ahead of USA, Belgium ahead of Vietnam in the four-nation groups. The other two groups play their final matches today, Saturday. Phuong Vinh Bao, the world champion from two years ago (6 match points, 1.643) and Peter Ceulemans (5 match points, 1.463) remained unbeaten. Berkay Karakurt is on 2.162 average over two matches and still plays against Huberney Cataño on Saturday. American Pedro Piedrabuena delivered an exceptional performance. He won against Ruben Legazpi and played a draw against Dick Jaspers and Sameh Sidhom. South Korea, not yet definitely placed, is the top team in average with 1.627 despite two losses of Myung Woo Cho.

On the second day, it became clear that it’s not the match points that lead the rankings, but game points from the two players in a team. So a win by a country with wins for two players earns 4 match points, a tie score, if one player of one team and one player of the other wins, earns 2 points.

58-year-old Mexican Javier Vera has been one of the standout players on the first two days. First he beat Myung Woo Cho 40-25 in 19, on the second day Jérémy Bury 40-38 in 30. Myung Woo Cho, the huge Korean talent, also lost his second match of the tournament on Friday against 56 year old Ryuuji Umeda 40-35 in 22.

For now, the Netherlands, Belgium, Vietnam and USA are seeded from the first two groups played. The battle for four more places in the quarter-finals goes to the finish today. Turkey and Mexico lead the way in those groups.

The overview of the groups so far:

Group A: Turkey still plays Colombia on Saturday, Germany against Portugal. The Turks lead the group with 6 points and 1,316 ahead of Germany and Colombia both with 5 points. The final matches are decisive with three teams still in the race for qualification: Turkey, Germany and Colombia. Berkay Karakurt has been the big man so far, including a win over Martin Horn 40-29 in 22.

The ranking in A:

1 Turkey 6-1,316

2 Germany 5-1,137

3 Colombia 5-1,235

4 Portugal 0-0,776

Berkay Karakurt, the best in average of all 32 players

Group B:

The Mexicans are the sensation of the Worlds for now with 58-year-old Javier Vera as a stunning frontrunner (wins against Myung Woo Cho and Bury). The Mexico-Japan match is the final for group win. Japan and France still play for second place. South Korea is second with 4 points as only Jung han Heo won his two matches and Myung Woo Cho lost twice.

 The standings in B:

1 Mexico 6-1,258

2 South Korea 4-1,627

3 Japan 3-1,190

4 France 3-1,079

58-year old Javier Vera beat both Myung Woo Cho and Jérémy Bury

 Group C:

The Belgians finished out of the preliminary rounds with an excellent total of 9 points. Peter Ceulemans started with a draw against Blomdahl and then won over Quyet Chien Tran and Jordanian Mashhour. Roland Forthomme was the strong runner-up with 4 match points:  wins against Olsson and Jordanian Al Ghababsheh. Vietnamese Bao remained unbeaten with 6 match points, his teammate Tran won 1 match, losing to Ceulemans and Blomdahl. The Swedes were eliminated as the number 3.

 The standings after 3 rounds:

1 Belgium 9-1,358

2 Vietnam 8-1,540

3 Sweden 7-1,232

4 Jordan 0-0,540

Group D:

The Dutch team came out of the first matches against USA and Egypt with a win, twice with victories for Jean Paul de Bruijn and draws for Dick Jaspers. In the last group match, the roles were reversed: Jaspers beat Legazpi, De Bruijn lost to Jimenez. USA's 3-1 victory against Egypt meant the Americans finished in second place. In the last game, Pedro Piedrabuena played a draw against Sameh Sidhom, as he had done in the first match against Dick Jaspers.

The standings:

1 Netherlands 8-1,550

2 USA 6-1,280

3 Spain 6-1,203

4 Egypt 4-1,070.

Dick Jaspers secured group win for the orange team

The final matches in the preliminary rounds are Saturday at 11am and 1.30pm. Then the quarter-finals, which will be determined after the preliminary rounds, will start at 5pm and 8pm.