VALENCIA - The proud president of the organizations of two World championships three cushion, Mr. Fernando Requena, is starting the promotion campaign for two major tournaments today (Tuesday, September 24) in the center of Valencia. Next week, from Monday 30 September to Saturday 5 October, the Spaniard will be in charge of the ladies World championships, followed by the Junior World championship. The world's best young players up to 21 and ladies meet in two consecutive tournaments in the 135-year-old Ateneo Mercantil de Valencia. The defending champions are Dutch Therese Klompenhouwer and Korean Myung-Woo Cho. "Our goal is to make it a big event with a lot of promotion and charisma," assures the Spanish federal president.
Both championships are played with 24 participants from all over the world. The European representation is the bigges with 11 among both the ladies and the juniors. The Ladies championship was organized once before in Spain, at the same center in Valencia in 2004 where Japanese Orie Hida became world champion. The Ateneo Mercantil Club de Valencia is a center for social/cultural meetings and events and has a total of 4.000 members. Fernando Requena: ''The Club organizes 1500 events in a year, in musical, political, art, poetic and many other social activities. The billiard club has 120 members and a room with four match tables. The championship is played there, 300 spectators can find a place. This week. the biggest Vincent van Gogh exhibition in the world is being organized."
Fernando Requena makes part of the billiard club in the Ateneo Mercantil since 45 years. The best known billiard players from Valencia are Javier Palazón, Raul Cuenca and Hector Quadrado (not from Ateneo) and David Martinez (Ateneo). One of the former star players in the club was Pepe Carrillo, a Spanish three cushion champion and several years playing for Spain at the World championship for nations in Viersen. In the Spanish team competition this year, Valencia plays with Jérémy Bury, David Martinez and Joao Ferreira.
The organization of the World championships is led by Fernando Requena with five assistants and many volunteers from the club. The matches are led by ten Spanish referees. "The Spanish federation has a very good corps of 600 referees, from which we have selected." Fernando Requena is not only chairman of the organization, also since 2000 vice-chairman of the UMB world federation and was closely involved in the developments of recent years.
Requena: ''We expect many spectators, also from foreign countries. There is a lot of interest from the Netherlands: 12 people from the federation and orange fans, who can create a nice atmosphere. The promotion will be started today, Tuesday, on the main square of Valencia near the town hall. We organize billiard exhibitions in the open air and we hope to make many young people and spectators enthusiastic for the tournaments. The media attention is very big: 20 media have registered, mainly from Spanish newspapers and TV, but also for the first time with NBC sport from Korea, which broadcasts on the Olympic channel. And don't forget Eurosport. Kozoom International, which is also our main sponsor, will broadcast all matches live on its internet channel. We also receive support from many people involved in our project, the Spanish Federation and the regional government. The World championship project has already thrown its shadow forward and will be a major promotion for our sport."
The World championship for ladies starts on Monday 30 September at 10.00, the final is Wednesday 2 October at 16.00. The World Junior championship starts on Thursday, October 3 at 10.00, the final is on Saturday at 16.00.
The promotion campagn launched on the main square in front of the Ateneo: with left to right: Eduardo Rifaterra (President Club Billar Ateneo), Antonio Ortiz (President Spaanse federatie), Fernando Requena (vice president UMB) en Horacio Jimenez (algemeen secretaris Ateneo de Valencia).
A former champion from the Ateneo Club: Pepe Carrillo (right) with the legend Raymond Ceulemans