Korean/Vietnamese battle already in full swing

SEOUL - The final shuffle to the final qualification round brought two Koreans to the top of the rankings ahead of two Vietnamese in the World Cup in Seoul. The Korean/Vietnamese battle, for Asian prestige, is already in full swing with seven Koreans in the ranking of 16 group winners, three Vietnamese, two Turks, one American, one Italian, one Austrian and one Spaniard. Fifteen group winners finished with four match points, with Alessio D'Agata going over as number 16, the only player with two match points and 1,264.  The difference in that group with the young Italian was exactly one carom in his favor after a superb final. D'Agata was just beaten by the new Vietnamese star, TTT Nguyen. However, the outcome for the group was in the Italian's favor. TTT led 33-19 after a run of seven, D'Agata finished sublime with 3, 4 and 4, narrowly making it to the next round. The Italian lost 35-33, but remained one carom ahead of the Vietnamese in the rankings. 

Song Il Yeong and Wan Young Choi finished on top with the same score (4 match points, 1.750), but Song Il Yeong took the lead: Yeong made the highest run of 16 in his group with the two Germans Tom Löwe and Lukas Stamm. Wan Young Kim, in his group with two Koreans, made 10 and 9. 

Vietnamese Van Ly Dao shone with series of 14 and 10. Arnim Kahofer beat two Turks (Bas and Gulbay) by a wide margin. The group of death was that of Alessio D'Agata, TTT Nguyen and Jose Juan Garcia. The three players finished with 2 match points, with the Italian having the best average (1.264) ahead of Nguyen (1.200) and Garcia (1.172).

For the Dutch, always with many players, the last World Cups have not been particularly successful. Also on this day, the three Dutchmen were eliminated: Huub Wilkowski with 0 points, 1.088, Joey de Kok with 0 points, 1.000 and Volkan Cetin with 0 points and 0.761. Especially Joey de Kok was painfully trounced: the Vietnamese Dao was superior with runs of 14 and 10 and beat the Dutchman 35-9 in 12 innings. That was the best game of the day. 

Turgay Orak owed his qualification to a better final sprint than Ji Hun Ahn (35-33 in 29).

The finish was already drawn on this penultimate qualifying day for big names like Alexander Salazar (2 points, 1.276), TTT Nguyen (2 points, 1.200), Huberney Cataño (2 points, 1.200) and Jose Juan Garcia (2 points, 1.172). The Colombian mission was too short-lived due to early elimination of Garcia, Cataño and Salazar. For America, though, Hugo Patiño made it to the final qualifying session by a win over Salazar.

The 16 group winners on Wednesday:

1. Song Il Yeong 4-1,750-16
2. Wan Young Choi 4-1.750-10
3. Van Ly Dao 4-1,590-14
4. Viet Hoang Minh Thon 4-1,590-9
5. Ahmet Alp 4-1,489-9
6. Chi Yeon Cho 4-1,458-7
7. Turgay Orak 4-1,372-11
8. Ja In Kang 4-1,346-7
9. Hoan Tat Nguyen 4-1,320-7
10. Sergio Jimenez 4-1,296-8
11. Hyun Il Song 4-1,272-7
12. Alessio D'Agata 2-1,264-5
13. Hugo Patino 4-1,250-8
14. Beom Yeoi Lee 4-1,206-6
15. Arnim Kahofer 4-1,186-6
16. Myeong Gyu Oh 4-1,111-6

Italian youngster Alessio D'Agata, winner in his group by 1 carom

Spaniard Sergio Jimenez, one of the group winners

American Hugo Patiño was the better of Alexander Salazar

Wan Young Choi, the strong Korean with his typical stroke

The 12 groups for the final qualifying day:

Group A: Nick Polychronopoulos, Beom Yeol Lee, Hugo Patino

Group B: Berkay Karakurt, Hyun Il Song, Arnim Kahofer

Group C: Jérémy Bury, Myeong Gyu Oh, Sergio Jimenez

Group D: Hong Chiem Thai, Hoan Tat Nguyen, Alessio D'Agata

Group E: Myeong Jong Cha, Ja In Kang, Jeffrey Jorissen

Group F: Thanh Luc Tran, Ye Sung Jeong, Turgay Orak

Group G: Ruben Legazpi, Gwendal Maréchal, Chi Yeon Cho

Group H: Peter Ceulemans, Gerhard Kostistansky, Ahmet Alp

Group I: Viet Hoang Minh Thon, Roland Forthomme, Glenn Hofman

Group J: Dao Van Ly, Jun Hyuk Son, Sam van Etten

Group K: Wan Young Choi, Omer Karakurt, Gökhan Salman

Group L: Bong Joo Hwang, Sung Il Jeong, Manuel Rui Costa.