SCHILTIGHEIM - The double winner after two days was sitting on the first row of the tribune in the Agipi arena. Two of his countrymen were on the billiards, Haeng Jik Kim, almost sure of playing in the next round, watched it very relaxed. Kyung Roul Kim was playing against Jérôme Barbeillon and had an excellent start. Sung-Won Choi, on the other table, needed some innings to find his rhytm in the match against Ryuuji Umeda.
But at the end the Koreans showed themselves again as scary competitors in this qualification rounds. They dominate their groups until now, with Sung-Won Choi as the leader and Kyung-Roul Kim who has to beat Umeda tomorrow to reach the next round.
Haeng Jik Kim saw it with a smile, the other Koreans in the tribune again enjoyed the day of glory.
Kyung-Roul Kim, the number three in the world ranking, had to prove himself in a better way than on day one. And so his start against Barbeillon was furious: a run of nine in the first inning, an adventage of 13-1 in two and of 19-3 in five innings.
But it seemed easier than it was. Jérôme Barbeillon had a revival in the 11th inning with a run of eight, which even brought him with 25-24 on the lead. Then again Kyung-Roul Kim turned out as the scary competitor he is in so many tournaments. With small runs he took a lead with 40-31, 46-32 and finished in the 31th inning: 50-33.
Sung-Won Choi, the player with the best average over all the groups until now, needed a kind of a wake up call against Ryuuji Umeda. The Japanese led 22-17 in 16 innings and believed in his chances. The Choi show announced himself in the sixteenth inning with a run of ten and at least so spectacular was the finish of the Korean. In the last four innings he made small runs of 4,4,4 and 5 to finish at 50-34 in 25 innings.
The 33-year old Choi is the unbeaten leader and tomorrow meets Jérôme Barbeillon, looking for his third victory. The match between Kyung-Roul Kim and Ryuuji Umeda is the most important in this group. The winner goes with Choi to the semi finals with the seeded players.