SANTA CRUZ - On the first day of the World championship three cushion in Santa Cruz, the Korean Haeng-Jik Kim, Spanish title defender Dani Sánchez and Vietnamese Minh Cam Ma were the best winners. The best ranked players had a flawless start. The global championship, with 48 players from all over the world, was opened with a little delay by Mr. Farouk Barki, the president of UMB and, among others, the Bolivian chairman Julio Crispin. The top five of the players list (Sánchez, Kim, Jaspers, Zanetti and Caudron) already were in action, Blomdahl, Coklu, Merckx, Polychronopoulos and Cho will come into the arena on the second day.
The Korean Haeng-Jik Kim was one of the three best starters in his match against another Korean, Jin Pyo Hong. The match had a poor start (8-6 in 12), but sprang to life by a brilliant final sprint of Haeng-Jik Kim from the 13th inning: 4, 17, 5 and 6, leading to a final score of 40-18 18, good 2.222 average.
Dani Sánchez showed up later on the Bolivian evening (deep in the European night) against Tonny Carlsen, who lost his first match to Christian Rudolph. The Spaniard, like HJ Kim, finished in 18. Dick Jaspers was the better of Japanese Nobuyasu Sakai (40-27) and playes in his second against Costa Rica's Erick Tellez. Both have already advanced to the knockout phase.
That also applies to Marco Zanetti and Frédéric Caudron by victories over Bolivian Jose Luis Bleichner (40-16 in 29) and Colombian Huberney Cataño (40-32 in 23). After the first day, eight players are already certain for the knock-out round with 32: Dani Sánchez, Christian Rudolph, Dick Jaspers, Erick Tellez, Marco Zanetti, Dionisis Tsokontas, Frédéric Caudron and Guido Sacco.
In late evening sessions, Glenn Hofman was a way too strong for Jérôme Barbeillon (40-17 in 22). The Dutchman, who meets two good friends from his junior junior team in Santa Cruz (Haeng-Jik Kim and Sameh Sidhom) ran away in his match by a run of ten and wasn't threatened at all by the Frenchman who suffers a lesser form for some weeks.
Eddy Leppens started his tournament with a huge victory over Jesus Salazar (40-10 in 28) and will meet Sung-Won Choi for his second. Can Capak won his moderate match against Argentina Carlos Zarate (40-34 in 41), in the group in which Eddy Merckx is the head player. Sameh Sidhom beat his countryman Riad Nady 40-29 in 29 and Anh Vu Duong knocked down the Italian number two Emilio Sciacca: 40-11 in 33. The last winners of the day were Pedro Piedrabuena (against Cartagena, 40- 21 in 27), Minh Cam Ma in an outstanding match against his countryman Quyet Chien Tran 40-28 in 18. The Vietnamese play their second match in the group against Javier Vera from Mexico. Tayfun Tasdemir beat Bolivian Amilcar Tapia: 40-18 in 22.
The first matches for today, Thursday (10.00 in Bolivia, 15.00 in Europe):
Arnim Kahofer-Jin Pyo Hong
Torbjörn Blomdahl-Javier Teran
Nikos Polychronopoulos-Jan Hudak
Jérémy Bury-Hyun My Seo.
Dick Jaspers, first win and already advanced to the main draw
Upside view in the billiard venue
Dani Sánchez, good start and already in the knock-outs
Vietnamese Minh Cam Ma beat his country man Quyet Chien Tran