SEOUL - The preliminary selections at the World 3-cushion Survival in Seoul have concluded with an excelling Korean Myuong Woo Cho. The young Asian was by far the best in the six groups of four players with a score of 146. Among other things, Myuong Woo Cho shone with a best run of 20. Dutch debutant Glenn Hofman and Belgian Eddy Merckx also joined the 12 finalists so far for the tournament in the final group rounds. Today, Friday, the 12 losers of the preliminary rounds will play for four remaining places. These include Dick Jaspers, Torbjörn Blomdahl, Phuong Vin Bao, Quyet Chien Tran and Haeng Jik Kim.
The Survival, the first major event of the new season, continues on Saturday with the final rounds with 16 players. Those will be divided into four groups of four for the Survival in the quarter-finals. The tournament has been surprising so far mainly because of the missed qualification of many leading players in three-cushion. They have to fight in the resits today in groups of four, the best four of which move on to the finals. Dick Jaspers plays in a group with Torbjörn Blomdahl and world champion Phuong Vinh Bao, among others.
Myung Woo Cho was the very best in the first preliminary rounds with 146 points in the score ahead of Sameh Sidhom with 98, Nikos Polychronopoulos with 97 and Jérémy Bury with 87.
The standings in the six groups:
Group A:
- Tayfun Tasdemir 76 points
- Tolgahan Kiraz 68
- Ja In Kang 52
- Quyet Chien Tran 44
Group B:
- Jérémy Bury 87
- Jin Woo Heo 79
- Jun Tae Kim 39
- Jung Han Heo 35
Group C:
- Ruben Legazpi 75
- Jung Hee Lee 71
- Haeng Jik Kim 63
- Dick Jaspers 31.
Group D:
- Nikos Polychronopoulos 97
- Marco Zanetti 60
- Phyong Vinh Bao 50
- Jun Hyuk Son 33
Group E:
- Myung Woo Cho 146
- Eddy Merckx 66
- Berkay Karakurt 26
- Hong Chiem Thai 2
Group F:
- Sameh Sidhom 98
- Glenn Hofman 66
- Torbjörn Blomdahl 50
- Myeong Jong Cha 26.
Today are the pools in the resits:
Group A (9.00 Korean time, 7 hours time difference with Western Europe): Haeng Jik Kim, Berkay Karakurt, Quyet Chien Tran, Hong Chiem Thai
Group B (12.00) : Ja In Kang, Jun Tae Kim, Jung Han Heo, Myeong Jong Cha
Group C (14.00): Torbjörn Blomdahl, Phuong Vinh Bao, Jun Hyuk Son, Dick Jaspers.
The four groups for the final rounds (provisional, without the last four qualifiers):
Group A: Myung Woo Cho, Jung Hee Lee, Tolgahan Kiraz +1
Group B: Sameh Sidhom, Jin Woo Heo, Eddy Merckx +1
Group C: Nikos Polychronopoulos, Ruben Legazpi, Glenn Hofman +1
Group D: Jérémy Bury, Tayfun Tasdemir, Marco Zanetti +1.