YANGGU-GUN – The world champion Myung Woo Cho is now also the champion of Asia. The little Korean ball magician defeated his compatriot Jun Tae Kim in the final at the Asian championship on Korean night by a generous score: 50-15 in 21/20 innings (2,380 on average). The Asian title earns Myung Woo Cho 80 ranking points. He thus approaches Dick Jaspers, who is in first place in the world player rankings. With his ranking points for the Asian title, Myung Woo Cho is No 2 with 396 points, nine points behind Jaspers who is No 1 with 405.
Myung Woo Cho showed his brilliant form in this championship, which included a win in the eighth finals over Japan's Shouta Funaki 50-19 in 17 innings (2,941). In the quarter-finals, Cho passed Vietnamese Phuong Vinh Bao after a superb chase with runs of 11, 5 and 7 for a 50-48 win in 24. In the semi-finals, Cho was the better of another Vietnamese, Thanh Tien Le and finally, the little Korean was the triumphant challenger to Jun Tae Kim, the defending champion in the Asian championship. The final was a one-way match: Cho got off to a strong start, Kim lagged far behind: with a 32-12 lead in 19, Cho almost went through the finish with a 16 run, but missed his 17th carom with a left-hand miss. On the next inning, he finished with 2 for 50-15 in 21.
The Asian championship was played in Donghae with a field of 32 players: mostly Koreans, Vietnamese and only a handful of Japanese. Jun Tae Kim was the best in the preliminary rounds with 2,000 on average among others ahead of Myung Woo Cho with 1,739.
Other contenders such as Haeng Jik Kim (eliminated by Phuong Vinh Bao), Quyet Chien Tran, Jung Han Heo, Duc Minh Tran, Thanh Luc Tran and Hong Chiem Thai stumbled on their way to the finals.
Myung Woo Cho's victory was all the more striking as he was suffering a form crisis just a fortnight ago at the World championship for national teams in Viersen. There, he lost all his matches: against Vera, Umeda, Bury and Jaspers.
The Asian Women's Championship will be played in the coming days.
Myung Woo Cho, the best in Asia and nr. 2 on the world rankings
The best of all Koreans, Vietnames and Japanese at the Asians.