RANDERS - The Mexican hotelier Javier Vera was the revelation in the first rounds on Tuesday the opening day at the World championship three cushion in Randers. He defeated Lütfi Cenet, the Turkish finalist at the World Cup in Veghel, 40-29 in 18 innings after a high-quality match. The 52-year-old player, triple champion in his country, is not totally unknown in the World championship history. Two years ago, in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, Vera also showed up as a dark horse when he defeated Vietnamese Quyet Chien Tran, Turk Murat Naci Coklu and Belgian Eddy Leppens. He was only eliminated by Vietnamese Minh Cam Ma in the quarterfinals.
Today, Wednesday, Vera has a day off, on Thursday he will meet Korean Jung-Han Heo in his second group match. The stars are favorable for the Mexican because of his victory over Cenet. Of the three players in this group (Vera, Cenet, Heo), two players move on to the sixteenth finals with 32 players (knock-out). The competitions started today among others with a run of 18 (!) by the Belgian Eddy Merckx.
The match between Vera and Cenet was fascinating: Vera started with 8, was leading 17-7 in 10 after seven misses in a row by Cenet, but the Turk fought back with runs of 6 and 10. The knock-out followed in the 16th inning with a run of 14 by Vera, which eventually led to 40-29 in 18.
That start remembers to the World championship two years ago in Bolivia. Javier Vera, from Puebla, second city in Mexico, father of two children, was the sensation with victories over Quyet Chien Tran and in the knock-out over Murat Naci Coklu (40-36 in 23) and Eddy Leppens (40-34 in 19). In the quarterfinals, Vera was eliminated by Vietnamese Minh Cam Ma 40-28 in 15.
The World championship in Randers continues today from 10.00 with the next group matches. The preliminary rounds last until the matches at 20.00. On Thursday is the last session of the group stage at 11.00. The sixteenth finals with 32 will start at 14.00.
The matches for today, Wednesday:
10.00:
Merckx-Rui Costa
JH Cho-Del Salto
Tran-Legazpi
Maréchal-Abdin
12.00:
Coklu-Arai
Bury-Ales
HJ Kim-Shehayeb
Horn-Gutierrez
14.00:
Heo-Cenet
Blomdahl-D'Agata
MW Cho-Hernandez
SW Choi-Nilsson
16.00:
Jaspers-Jäschke
Zanetti-WY Choi
Tasdemir-Teran
Sayginer-Kahofer
18.00:
Merckx-Mori
JH Cho-DAC Nuyen
Tran-Sörensen
Maréchal-Sidhom
The last group matches for Thursday, 11.00:
Heo-Vera
Blomdahl-Forthomme
MW Cho-Nguyen Quoc
SW Choi-Sanchez.
Javier Vera, cheered by his fans at the World championship in Bolivia