ANKARA – The World Championships three cushion in Ankara, from Wednesday 6 to Sunday 10 September, will start with Turkish frontrunner Tayfun Tasdemir as the defending champion. He is only the second Turk in the long history of World championships from 1928 to take the main title following Semih Sayginer who took the title in 2003. In the own country, four Turks are in the arena this week, which is three less than South Korea, which has an excess of seven players. From the other countries, Colombia also has four participants, with the USA making a bid for a podium finish with three players.
All other participating countries have two or one players at the Worlds three cushion for men, noting that prominent billiard countries like Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Japan and France may also start with only two players.
In the run-up to the World championship in Ankara, Peruvian billiards fan Roberto Molina from Portoviejo, who visualises wonderful schedules and statistics, has pictured the world champions from 2003 onwards. He starts with Semih Sayginer in 2003 and ends with Tayfun Tasdemir in 2022. That can be supplemented by Marco Zanetti's victory in 2002, making it a collage of the last 20 champions.
Dick Jaspers became world champion five times in that period, Dani Sánchez three times, Torbjörn Blomdahl, Marco Zanetti, Eddy Merckx and Frédéric Caudron twice each. It sums up the success story of this century's champions. To be complete, over all history, Raymond Ceulemans with 21 world titles was by far the undisputed champion ahead of Blomdahl with 7, Jaspers with 5 and Sánchez with 4 world titles.
We take a closer look at Roberto Molina's list and the first two titles of this century and find that six of those world champions will also start in Ankara this year: Dick Jaspers, Torbjörn Blomdahl, Tayfun Tasdemir, Marco Zanetti, Eddy Merckx and Ryuuji Umeda.
In those 22 years that the World three cushion championship has been played, 88 players have been on the podium. Of all these players, 41 players were not selected this year, are no longer active, or have transferred to the PBA in recent years. The four players from the last World championship are the only four from those 22 championships to play again this year. From all other venues, 1, 2, 3 or even 4 players are missing from the current Worlds. Once in that history, in 2010, there were even four players on the podium who are all four not in action this time. That happened in Sluiskil in 2010, where Dani Sánchez became champion and the Spaniard was joined on the podium by Eddy Leppens, Sung Won Choi and Javier Palazón, who now play for the PBA. Last year, in 2022 in Donghae City, Tayfun Tasdemir was champion, Ruben Legazpi won the silver, Dick Jaspers and Eddy Merckx completed the podium. All four of those players will be there in Ankara.
The 48 players divided among the participating countries:
South Korea 7
Turkey, Colombia 4
USA 3
Vietnam, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy, Egypt, Sweden, Japan, Greece, Denmark all 2
Germany, Mexico, Portugal, Lebanon, Austria, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Jordan.
The World championship starts Wednesday at 11am Turkish time with the first matches being:
Javier Vera-Robinson Morales
Dick Jaspers-Jean Paul de Bruijn
Mohamed Abdin-Hugo Patino
Fadi Abusaleh-Ryuuji Umeda.
The 48 players in the preliminary rounds, with the top two passing in each of the 16 pools of three players:
Pool A: Tayfun Tasdemir, Javier Vera, Robinson Morales
Pool B: Dick Jaspers, Jean Paul de Bruijn, Ji Hun Ahn
Pool C: Marco Zanetti, Mohamed Abdin, Hugo Patino
Pool D: Torbjörn Blomdahl, Fadi Abousaleh, Ryuuji Umeda
Pool E: Myung Woo Cho, Huberney Cataño, Cetin Behzat
Pool F: Eddy Merckx, Gwendal Maréchal, Rui Manuel Costa
Pool G: Sameh Sidhom, Jacob Sörensen, Jhon Fredy Martinez
Pool H: Haeng Jik Kim, Gerhard Kostistandsky, Kostas Kokkoris
Pool I: Quyet Chien Tran, Tolgahan Kiraz, Omer Karakurt
Pool J: Jérémy Bury, Pedro Piedrabuena, Carlos Mario Villegas
Pool K: Nikos Polychronopoulos, Phuong Vinh Bao, Radovan Hajek
Pool L: Jung Han Heo, Berkay Karakurt, Takao Miyashita
Pool M: Jun Tae Kim, Michael Nilsson, Hyung Kon Kim
Pool N: Martin Horn, Mashhour Abu Tayeh, Emilio Sciacca
Pool O: Ruben Legazpi, Roland Forthomme, Luis Martinez
Pool P: Myeong Jong Cha, Dion Nelin, Henry Diaz.
The table from 2003 made by Roberto Molina