3-Cushion
VALENCIA - The three-cushion World championships for juniors and ladies, played in the Spanish city of Valencia this week, has made clear painfully the further break up of European's billiards stronghold. Therese Klompenhouwer could camouflage the weakness of women's billiards with her well deserved title in the women's final with three Asian opponents. The final day at the juniors will be played tomorrow, Saturday, without European players. Three Koreans, with Myung-Woo Cho as the huge favorite, playing over two average, and one South American play for gold. The last Europeans to disappear from the stage were Italian Alessio D'Atata in the quarters with 0.833 on average and Spaniard Ivan Mayor with 0.437.
The Koreans surely have been dominating the juniors championships for years with top players like HaengJik Kim and Myung Woo Cho and even with two or three players on the podium. Myung-Woo Cho's hegemony, the super talent with two world titles to his name, comes to an end this weekend, because this Korean makes the switch to the senior category. Two other Koreans, Hwa Woo Cho and Jinseo Ko, can only be stopped by an 18-year-old Colombian, Cristian Montoya, this Saturday.
Myung-Woo Cho, everyone knows, will be hard to beat in his final junior year. The last four who meet on the final day are:
11.00: Myung-Woo Cho-Cristian Montoya
13.00: Hwan Woo Cho-Jinseo Ko.
The European opposition had to come in the forefront by players like Nikolaus Kogelbauer, Lukas Mortensen, Yvan Mayor, the two Frenchmen Nathan Duriez and Maxime Panaia and most of all by Alessio D'Agata, but these young Europeans could not really threaten the Asian front . That must be the conclusion of this World championship, that the next three years will be played again on European soil (Netherlands).
Myung-Woo Cho, with all his matches over two average, is probably unstoppable on the final day. Cristian Montoya has to grow far beyond himself to beat the world star. The other two Koreans play for the second final place. They are at least with three players on the podium. Jinseo Ko seemed less strong than the other Koreans on Friday night.
Montoya is not the opponent that the Koreans feared in the run-up to this World championship. He is even four years younger than Myung-Woo Cho, the title defender, who faces the 18-year-old, still relatively unknown Colombian in the semi-final. Montoya is one of the big talents in his country. He was third in the Pan American championship following Nicaraguan Percy Martinez and Luis Carrasco from Peru, but he is the last South American now in the battle for the world title.
The Colombian from Cali did not enter the World's stage as a big contender, but grew into the tournament after he was second in the first qualifications behind Frenchman Duriez with 0.671 on average. Montoya was much better in the knockout, first with a win against Nikolaus Kogelbauer (35-32 in 40) and in the quarterfinals against Percy Martinez from Nicaragua with 35-13 in 19 (run of ten).
More about Cristian Montoya? He comes from Cali, started playing billiards at the age of 13 in the club of Carlos Campiño, who is his teacher together with Fernando Diaz: Campiño in the morning, Diaz in the evening. Montoya works at Carlos Campiño's club during the day.
Myung-Woo Cho was much stronger in the other quarterfinals than Yvan Mayor (35-7 in 15), Hwa Woo Cho bested Alessio D'Agata 35-20 in 24 and Jinseo Ko, after a difficult final phase, needed almost twice as much innings to beat Japanese Shota Funaki, 35-30 in 46.
The run-up with the best sixteen on the early Friday morning reduced the Europeans from seven to two players. Italian Alessio D'Agata survived against Nathan Duriez (35-29 in 30), Spaniard Yvan Mayor against Alptekin Canozkan (35-29 in 28). Myung-Woo Cho continued his crusade with a win over his countryman Hannuri Kim (35-12). Maxime Panaia, a feared fighter, did not profit from nine consecutive misses at the start by Korean Hwa Woo Cho and just came to short in the last innings despite two last runs of 4: 35-33.
Alessio D'Agata played the other and last Frenchman, Nathan Duriez, from the stage with 35-29 in 30. Junseo Ko was the third Korean in the last eight by a win over Peruvian Luis Carrasco with 35-25 in 43. Lukas Mortensen, 17-year-old son of Marianne Mortensen, who is following a financial study and plays his first World championship, had a promising start against Japanese Shota Funaki, but lost control and was beaten in a poor match 35-31 in 60. Luis Martinez eliminated Belgian Nick Rosier (35-27 in 47) and Cristian Montoya was the better of Nikolaus Kogelbauer by runs of 3 and 2 in the last innings: 40-32 in 40.
Myung-Woo Cho: farewell with a third world title
Hwa Woo Cho, second best so far in the final stage
Jinseo Ko, the outsider in the best four