On the Korean party, in the late afternoon of the Agipi Masters, Jérôme Barbeillon danced on the highest platform. The 36-year-old Frenchman, with two losses already eliminated for qualification, suddenly brought the audiance in great delight with an unexpected revival. Ten points, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen ...
Kyung Roul Kim and Ryuuji Umeda, at the other billiard, had just stopped their match. The Parisian, playing against Sunt Won Choi, fought against a lag and kept scoring. His highest run until today was seventeen, made in a match against Jean-Christophe Roux in France. And now? Twenty caroms, underway to that wonderful border, in the Agipi Masters, where above ten caroms (bonus 500 euros) and between fifteen and twenty with 750 euro's.
But no: the twentieth point was to difficult for the star of the afternoon. The applause decreased on the shoulders of the Frenchman. It was his farewell to the tournament, because he had no more chances to survive. With the run of nineteen he came to a lead of 41-37, but it was not enough to win. Sung-Won Choi grabbed the victory.
A Korean ball with a French protagonist, that was the conclusion of the final matches in group 5. Sung-Won Choi already was sure of qualification and remained unbeaten with the 50-45 in 31 innings against Barbeillon.
Kyung-Roul Kim nd Ryuuji Umeda had to fight on the other billiard who would accompany Choi to the twenty best players in January and February, when the next selection will be done.
The victory was for Kim, who took an adventage after the seventh inning with runs of 5, 4, 7 and 4 in a row (25-18). Then, with 39-26 afterwards, he ran away to the finish in 24 innings: 50 -33.
,,We have just played in Korea against each other'', Kim said about his confrontation with Umeda. ,,He is always a dangerous and formidable opponent for me, I'm happy that I won.''
Jérôme Barbeillon watched it with a smile. With three losses, he could still put a nice bag of money in is pocket. The run of nineteen was rewarded with 750 euros, more than Eddy Merckx (although underway to three wins) earned until now.