3-Cushion
SEOUL - The best run ever in three cushion, the world record 28, set by four players, has been in danger many times, but it remains an ultimate dream for the current generation of top guns. The Korean player, Jae-Ho Cho was only three caroms away from that record today in his match for the quarter-finals at the Survival Masters. The high run which is in the record books since 1993 (Japanese Junichi Komori) and was later matched by the Belgians Ceulemans, Caudron and Forthomme. Jae-Ho Cho was on fire, scored his 26th point and then faced an extremely difficult position for number 27. The cue ball was stopped by a kiss after one rail. The brave attempt failed, but surely was the highlight at the Survival Masters so far.
Eight players remained for the final day in today's quarters. They will first meet in the semi-finals and then in the final with four players. Semih Sayginer was the best with his group score in the quarters with 165 points and 3,250 on average (run 13). Jae-Ho Cho finished his mission with 160 points thanks to his super run with 4,071 on average. Two rather unknown Koreans were among the top eight fort he last day of the tournament: Ji-Hun Ahn scoring 72 points, Dae-Hyun Jang with 70 points.
Dani Sánchez and Dae-Hyun Jang werd the top two players in Group A and eliminated Dick Jaspers and Dion Nelin. Semih Sayginer was by far the best in Group B, Eddy Merckx went on tot he semi-finals with a modest 37. Jae-Ho Cho was outstanding in Group C and inimitably took Sung-Won Choi with him to the final day, like Merckx with 37 points. Quyet Chien Tran and Ji-Hun Ahn finished on one and two in Group D ahead of Hyung-Mook Lim and Roland Forthomme.
The matches for the semi-finals, on Sunday:
17.00: Sayginer-Jang-Ahn-Merckx
19.00: Cho-Tran-Sanchez-HJ Kim
The rankings in the quarter finals:
Group A:
1 Sanchez 70-1,294-7
2 Jang 70-1,294-8
3 Jaspers 54-1,058-6
4 Nelin 46-0,941-4
Group B:
1 Sayginer 165-3,250-13
2 Merckx 37-1,250-5
3 Blomdahl 21-1,000-4
4 Sidhom 17-0,937-5
Group C:
1 Cho 160-4,071-26
2 Kim 37-1,857-5
3 SW Choi 37-1,923-8
4 WY Choi 6-1,285-5
Group D:
1 Tran 84-1,764-8
2 Ahn 72-1,588-6
3 Lim 52-1,294-5
4 Forthomme 32-1,000-8.
Semih Sayginer, with a high score of (165) to the final day
Quyet Chien Tran, the winner in Group D ahead of Ji-Hu Ahn
Dani Sánchez, same score as the outsider Dae-Hyun Jang