SHARM EL SHEIKH - Two years after Torbjörn Blomdahl captured the world title three cushion in the Danish town of Randers, the 59-year-old Swede may defend his title in Sharm El Sheikh (Egypt) from 7-11 December. The long pandemic without major tournaments no longer stands in the way of the organization of the most coveted championship this year. The world federation UMB will send these weeks invitations to 48 players from the various continents.
Apart from the champion, the best 16 players of the world ranking are in the top field with 13 European, 8 American, 5 Asian, 3 African players and two players with a wildcard from the organization. Only the Asian and American players are not yet known. The European players are designated, with one player, usually the champion, per country.
The Turkish players have the biggest representation with five: Tayfun Tasdemir, Semih Sayginer, Murat Naci Coklu and Lütfi Cenet from the ranked players and Can Capak as the player who represents his country. From the other European countries, the Belgians start with three players (Eddy Merckx, Roland Forthomme and Peter Ceulemans), the Netherlands have Dick Jaspers and Ludo Kools, for Sweden the names are Torbjörn Blomdahl and Michael Nilsson, for Spain there are Dani Sánchez and Ruben Legazpi, for Germany Martin Horn and Ronny Lindemann have been invited, for Italy Marco Zanetti and Alessio D'Agata will play, for France Jérémy Bury and Gwendal Maréchal, for Denmark Dion Nelin and Jacob Haack Sörensen travel to the World championship.
The Koreans have Haeng-Jik Kim, Sung-Won Choi and Jung-Han Heo in the field for the time being. The players designated by the Asian federation will be added soon. The UMB also expects the names of the American participants shortly. The Vietnamese players will not participate at the World championship due to the travel problems. The Korean and Japanese players surely will be on the players list.
Three players have been selected for the African and Middle Eastern federations: Mohsen Fouda from Egypt, Mashhour Abu Tayeh from Jordan and Yasser Shehayeb from Lebanon. The two wildcards from the organization are handed to Yousef Ossama and Riad Nady from Egypt, the country that has with Sameh Sidhom as seeded player a total of four players in the field of 48.
The Egyptian tourist resort Sharm El Sheikh
The players automatically seeded are:
Torbjörn Blomdahl (Sweden)
Dick Jaspers (Netherlands)
Marco Zanetti (Italy)
Eddy Merckx (Belgium)
Tayfun Tasdemir (Turkey)
Dani Sánchez (Spain)
HaengJik Kim (Korea)
Sameh Sidhom (Egypt)
Semih Sayginer (Turkey)
Murat Naci Coklu (Turkey)
Martin Horn (Germany)
Jérémy Bury (France)
Lütfi Cenet (Turkey)
Sung-Won Choi (Korea)
Jung-Han Heo (Korea)
Dion Nelin (Denmark)
Roland Forthomme (Belgium)
The European players per country
Ruben Legazpi (Spain)
Ludo Kools (Netherlands)
Jacob Haack Sörensen (Denmark)
Peter Ceulemans (Belgium)
Can Capak (Turkey)
Nikos Polychronopoulos (Greece)
Ronny Lindemann (Germany)
Martin Bohac (Czech Republic)
Arnim Kahofer (Austria)
Manuel Rui Costa (Portugal)
Gwendal Maréchal (France)
Alessio D'Agata (Italy)
Michael Nilsson (Sweden).
(Reserves are Cetin Behzat (Switzerland), Jeffrey Jorissen (Netherlands), Thomas Andersen (Denmark), Francis Forton (Belgium), Kostas Kokkoris (Greece).
The African players:
Mohsen Fouda (Egypt)
Mashhour Abu Tayeh (Jordan)
Yassser Shehayeb (Lebanon).
The two wildcards from the organization:
Youssef Ossama (Egypt)
Riad Nady (Egypt).
The tournament will be played at Park Regency Sharm El Sheikh Resort.
The tournament director is Mohamed Souliman.