PORTO - Japan's Takao Miyashita led the ranking of group winners after the second day at the Porto World Cup. Among the top five are Emrullah Basegmez, the tall Turk, Glenn Hofman, a returnee from the PBA, another Turk, Ismet Esen and young Greek Dimitrios Seleventas. The day was marked by exciting matches, including five ending in a draw. The Belgian Henk Blauwblomme was one of the victims of that: with the win and qualification in sight, his opponent, Turk Muammer Rahmet, finished with six.
That was one of five draws in the battles for a place in the third day. Burak Hashas, the young Turkish promise, also ran into that, but saved his tournament thanks to a high average and qualification as best runner-up. Sergei Jimenez, the very best starter with 30-9 in 14 against Herbert Szivacz, also shone in his second appearance, but saw Korean Jeong Ye Sung equalize in 16 innings. Jimenez was top in average with 3 match points and 2,000 over two games.
The high-quality third day already pits a lot of contenders for a place in the main tournament against each other on Wednesday. The most interesting threesome is led by Colombian Alexander Salazar and includes Jeffrey Jorissen and Pierre Soumagne.
Two Greeks, Dimitrios Seleventas and Kostas Kokkoris meet in a group with Korean Sung Il Jeong. Robinson Morales, big standout in the Spanish team championship last weekend, enters the World Cup in a group with Korean Hyuk Son Jun and Portuguese Rui Edgar. Jean Paul de Bruijn ran into a strong draw with Cédric Melnytschenko and Korean Jaein Jung. Burak Hashas faces the also still youthful Frenchman Maxime Panaia as opponent along with Swede David Pennör. Daniel Morales is paired with Huub Wilkowski (highest run with 10 on the second day) and Dustin Jäschke. Sam van Etten plays against Turgay Orak and the last day winner on Tuesday, Manolis Minaoglu.
The ranking of winners on the second day:
- Takao Miyashita 4-1,428-7
- Emrullah Basegmez 4-1,395-7
- Glenn Hofman 4-1,363-8
- Ismet Esen 4-1,304-9
- Dimitrios Seleventas 4-1,276-6
- Rui Edgar 4-1,276-4
- Muammer Rahmet 4-1,111-6
- Huub Wilkowski 4-1,090-10
- Maxime Panaia 4-1,052-7
- Vincent Lelievre 4-1,016-4
- Norbert Roestel 4-0,909-8
- Manolis Minaoglu 4-0.909-5
- Sergey Jimenez 3-2,000-8
- Jae In Jung 3-1,621-9
- Alexander Salazar 3-1,176-6
- Valentin Andaluz 2-0.913-4
Two reserves go into the next day:
- Burak Hashas 3-1,578-6
- Ye Sung Jeong 3-1,224-8
- Tobias Bouerdick, Do Young Yun and Henk Blauwblomme just missed out qualification.