ISTANBUL - For minutes, the spectators in the stands of the Istanbul billiard room cheered and chanted the name of a new hero. Murat Naci Coklu (41) won his first World Cup this Sunday, beating Belgian Roland Forthomme in the final: 40-26 in 21. The overjoyed winner, the second Turk to grab a title this year, following in Tayfun Tasdemir's footsteps, was the best player in a tournament that saw the top-12 players go out the side door, one by one. Dick Jaspers, beaten by Coklu in the semi, and Merckx, beaten by Forthomme, completed the rostrum in the beautiful arena of the Zeytinoglu Caddesi sports center in Besiktas, Istanbul. The other Turkish star of the year, Tayfun Tasdemir, got beaten by the eventual winner of the event on the second day of play.
Murat Naci Coklu, the European champion of 2004, celebrated his win with a broad smile, his cue in the air as he held the Turkish flag. Amongst the first to congratulate him were the legend, Raymond Ceulemans, tournament director Gökhan Salman, the Turkish federation president Ersan Ercan, and of course his close ones in the stands. As he stood on the rostrum, the trophy in his hand and the national anthem playing, he could not hold back the tears. The crowd shared the champion's emotions.
The later winner had shown his mental strength, never more so than when he beat Jaspers in a shootout 5-4, in the semifinal. The match was dominated by Jaspers at first, with a 20-13 lead after 15 innings, and 32-23 after 22. The Turk caught up 32-30 and kept scoring, but had to watch as Jaspers crossed the line first: 40-36. His supporters could hardly breathe as he played the equalizer and ran a four. It forced a shootout, Jaspers starting it with another run of four. The fifth was tricky, and the Dutchman got kissed out. Once again, Murat Naci Coklu had it all to do. With every point being applauded as if it was the last, he managed to surpass Jaspers with a run of five, to get into the final.
Coklu already showed his blistering form in the last qualification round when he defeated Jose Juan Garcia and Christian Rudolph with a 2.500 general. In the main draw he outplayed in a row Polychronopoulos, Tasdemir, Tran, Jaspers and finally Forthomme on his way to the gold medal.
Roland Forthomme and Eddy Merckx were neck and neck all the way in the Belgian clash, with Forthomme just in the lead, 29-27 and 37-32. His last point only just made, and Merckx needed four in the equalizer but missed after three: 40-39 in 30.
The final was in balance until it was 24-23, then the Turk dominated to make it 31-23 thanks to a run of seven. Forthomme had a troubled 10 innings, in which he only scored six times, and Coklu could smell victory. Pushed by the encouragements of the crowd, he crossed the finish line.
With 80 world ranking points added, he climbs to the 15th position on the list. Sameh Sidhom and HaengJik Kim (absent in Istanbul) dropped out of the top-12. Roland Forthomme benefitted from his 54 points to climb to 9th. Torbjörn Blomdahl was eliminated early, but is still the world nr. 1, ahead of Dani Sánchez, Dick Jaspers, Tayfun Tasdemir and Eddy Merckx.
Dani Sánchez is the new leader in the overall world cup standing for the season, with a small lead over Dick Jaspers and Torbjörn Blomdahl. The sixth and last World Cup will be played in Hurghada, from 13 - 19 December.
The final ranking in Istanbul:
1 Murat Naci Coklu 1.612-9
2 Roland Forthomme 1.576-13
3 Dick Jaspers 1.666-15
3 Eddy Merckx 1.500-9
5 Carlos Crespo 1.859-12
6 Jae Ho Cho 1.575-7
7 Dani Sánchez 1.415-7
8 Quyet Chien Tran 1.390-10
9 Jung Han Heo 2.228-11
10 Jean Paul de Bruijn 1.800-8
11 Pedro Piedrabuena 1.750-12
12 Frédéric Caudron 1.725-8
13 Tayfun Tasdemir 1.638-7
14 Xuan Cuong Ma 1.418-8
15 Quoc Nguyen Nguyen 1.415-9
16 Hyung Bum Hwang 1.138-5
17 Adnan Yüksel 1.764-10
18 Torbjörn Blomdahl 1.722-7
19 Sung-Won Choi 1.625-8
20 Marco Zanetti 1.550-8.
The general average in the main tournament: 1.494
The new World ranking:
1 Blomdahl 403 points
2 Sánchez 286
3 Jaspers 284
4 Tasdemir 277
5 Merckx 263
6 Choi 235
7 Zanetti 224
8 Cho 185
9 Forthomme 181
10 Hwang 162
11 Caudron 157
12 Tran 152
13 De Bruijn 149
14 Sidhom 146
15 Coklu 145
16 Piedrabuena 145
17 Heo 144
18 HJ Kim 143
19 Leppens 133
20 Yüksel 127.
The World Cup ranking 2015:
1 Sánchez 208
2 Jaspers 202
3 Blomdahl 196
4 Tasdemir 174
5 Forthomme 130
6 Merckx 126
7 Coklu 114
8 Hwang 109
9 Choi 104
10 Caudron 94.