GURI - Three quick starters with thirty caroms in ten and eleven innings, Filipos Kasidokostas who must leave the World Cup stage after two days, knocked out by the joyous South American Luis Aveiga. The blond Greek Apostolos Balogiannis continued his wonderful tournament and also survived the third day. Those were the most remarkable results on the second to last day of qualification in the World Cup in Guri. Not only Koreans shone for their home crowd on this stage, although the fairly unknown, 35 year-old Sang Dae Lee is still one of the star players with his ongoing victory streak. The unmarried, bespectacled restaurant owner, who lives in JunJu within three hundred kilometres from Seoul, was already the best of all on Tuesday. Today, one day later, he started with 30-9 in eleven against Japanese Kiyota and then defeated the Dutchman Jean Paul de Bruijn 30-21 in 21.
Dinh Ngo Nai, one of the feared Vietnamese, ran over Jun Tae Kim with a stunning start: 15-0 in three innings, the best seen until now in Guri. And after a short hiccup, the Vietnamese could finish 30-21 in 17. The younger Vietnamese Duc Anh Nguyen Chien showed that New York, where he shone for the first time, was not a coïncidence at all. The friendly boy faced Tolgahan Kiraz in the match for the group win to reach the next round. The Turk excelled in the previous session 30 in ten innings, but was tortured by Nguyen's last, magic ball to finish 30-26 in 22.
The other first days revelation is Apostolos Balogiannis, the 40-year-old Greek from Athens, leading a company in awnings. ,,I'm leading a very busy life, so I've been out for a couple of years'', he said, after he survived his third day in Guri. ,,Recently, I practiced and play in my club Amorti, owned by Niofitis and Georgaras, two friends, one of whom is here. Ten months ago I told Filipos Kasidokostas, for me the perfect player to learn technique, that I wanted a few lessons, because I planned to play a World Cup. Around 2002 and 2004, I came to the main draw many times, even one time to the last eight in Hurghada, where I lost 3-2 to Marco Zanetti.''
Four Koreans, one Japanese and Kostas Papakonstantinou, the other Greeks in the group, could not stop Apostolos on his third survival day. Jun Tae Kim, vice junior world champion, forced a draw, but as best runner-up, the Greek got his well deserved ticket and returned into the tournament.
Luis Aveiga produced a shout of joy at least five times in his match against Filipos Kasidokostas, in which he needed a win after the draw against Dustin Jäschke. The South American ran away from Kasidokostas to 24-14 in 10 and was never in danger in the final part: 30-22 in 19. The Colombian Andres Lizarazo impressed in his group with Jung Wan Lim and Mehmet Goren: two wins in 17 and 13 innings, bringing him to 2.000 average and the lead in the day ranking followed by Sang Dae Lee and Ngo Dinh Nai.
Three Spaniards, Javier Palazón, David Martinez and Ruben Legazpi will return tomorrow, David Zapata and Carlos Crespo were eliminated, although Crespo missed the qualification by a minor difference. The group Legazpi with the Koreans Hyun Min Seo and Byung Seob Kim started with two draws, the Spaniard won the decisive match against Seo by only two caroms. David Martinez finished with a lucky ball against Gökhan Salman, but was the well deserved group winner. Javier Palazón defeated his young countryman Juan David Zapata, having had to catch up with runs of 12 and 7 to the finish.
Four players with three match points (Birol Uymaz Luis Aveiga, Hyun-Suk Kim and Ruben Legazpi) and one with two points (Durk Hee Hwang) close the list of the top sixteen.
The final ranking on Wednesday:
1 Andres Lizarazo 4-2.000-9
2 Sang Dae Lee 4-1.875-9
3 Dinh Nai Ngo 4-1.714-8
4 Duc Anh Chien Nguyen 4-1.714-8
5 Javier Palazón 4-1.578-12
6 Jin Pyo Hong 4-1.395-10
7 M yung Woo Cho 4-1.333-7
8 David Martinez 4-1.333-7
9 Murat Tüzül 4-1.333-7
10 Apostolos Balogiannis 4-1.304-10
11 Can Capak 4-1.276-9
12 Birol Uymaz 3-1.714-5
13 Hyun-Suk Kim 3-1.621-12
14 Ruben Legazpi 3-1.428-6
15 Luis Aveiga 3-1.395-9
16 Durk Hee Hwang 2-1.384-8.
The Korean stuntman Sang Dae Lee was again in top three of the day's ranking
The Vietnamese Dinh Nai Ngo, a kickstart and a win over Jun Tae Kim
The groups for Thursday, the last qualification day (matches start at 10.00 uur):
Group A: Riad Nadi, Duc Anh Chien Nguyen, Javier Palazón
Group B: Dinh Nai Ngo, Jin Pyo Hong, Murat Naci Coklu
Group C: Haeng Jik Kim, Sang Dae Lee, Myung Woo Cho
Group D: Andres Lizarazo, David Martinez, Quyet Chien Tran
Group E: Quoc Nguyen Nguyen, Xuan Cuong Ma, Murat Tüzül
Group F: Minh Cam Ma, Apostolos Balogiannis, Jung Han Heo
Group G: Pedro Piedrabuena, Hyung Kon Kim, Can Capak
Group H: Jose Juan Garcia, Birol Uymaz, Jérémy Bury
Group I: Anh Vu Duong, Hyun-Suk Kim, Lütfi Cenet
yyPoule J: Chi Yeon Cho, Hyung Bum Hwang, Ruben Legazpi
Group K: Sung-Won Choi, Luis Aveiga, Semih Sayginer
Group L: Choong-Bok Lee, Durk Hee Lee, Eddy Leppens.
Javier Palazón, one of the strong Spanish players showing up in the next round