RANDERS - In the very last of 48 matches in the prerounds of the World championship three-cushion in Randers, the Belgian giant Roland Forthomme finished with the best of all. He defeated Torbjörn Blomdahl 40-21 in 11 innings and improved Jae-Ho Cho's game in 12 to the finish line. The second Belgian in this tournament following Eddy Merckx, for his friends 'Rolandinho' and since two weeks 49 years of age, was ranked among the high ranked players for the knock-out after his great match. He finished fourth, Merckx, Tasdemir and Jaspers were 1, 2 and 3.
The best-known player who dropped out in the last session was Jung-Han Heo, despite a win against Mexican Javier Vera 40-29 in 24. That even made Lütfi Cenet the group winner, the only one with 2 match points.
Roland Forthomme and Torbjörn Blomdahl had a flashy start in their last game. The Belgian, one of the four world record holders high runs with 28, started with 8, the Swede answered by 11 in the second inning. Very soon Forthomme expanded his lead and finished in his last three innings by 7, 6 and 2.
In the final session, Nguyen Quoc Nguyen defeated Myung-Woo Cho 40-31 in 21, Dani Sánchez beat Sung-Won Choi 40-34 in 22. Michael Nilsson was eliminated in that group.
The main draw starts with the clash between two former teammates in the famous Agipi team: Marco Zanetti and Jérémy Bury. Other notable matches: Martin Horn-Dion Nelin, Eddy Merckx-Sung-Won Choi, HaengJik Kim-Murat Naci Coklu, Lütfi Cenet-Torbjörn Blomdahl, Jae-Ho Cho-Duc Anh Chien Nguyen and Semih Sayginer-Jacob Sörensen.
The matches for the first knock-out sessions, starting at 14.00 uur:
14.00:
Eddy Merckx-Sung-Won Choi
Torbjörn Blomdahl-Lütfi Cenet
Martin Horn-Murat Naci Coklu
Jae-Ho Cho-Dion Nelin
16.00:
Nikos Polychronopouloz-Javier Teran
Nguyen Quoc Nguyen-Arnim Kahofer
Sameh Sidhom-Myung-Woo Cho
Roland Forthomme-Gwendal Maréchal
18.00:
Dick Jaspers-Dustin Jäschke
Semih Sayginer-Jacob Sörensen
Wan Young-hoi-Yusuke Mori
Quyet Chien Tran-Javier Vera
20.00:
Dani Sánchez-Pedro Gonzalez
HaengJik Kim-Duc Anh Chien Nguyen
Jérémy Bury-Marco Zanetti
Tayfun Tasdemir-Erick Tellez
The group winners after the pre-rounds:
Eddy Merckx (Belgium) 4-2.500-18
Tayfun Tasdemir (Turkey) 4-2.424-12
Dick Jaspers (Netherlands) 4-2.352-12
Roland Forthomme (Belgium) 4-2.000-11
Nguyen Quoc Nguyen (Korea) 4-2.000-8
Wan Young Choi (Korea) 4-2.000-7
Dani Sánchez (Spain) 4-1.904-7
Jae-Ho Cho Korea) 4-1.860-14
Martin Horn (Germany) 4-1.860-10
HaengJik Kim (Korea) 4-1.860-7
Quyet Chien Tran (Vietnam) 4-1.818-12
Nikos Polychronopoulos (Greece) 4-1.568-15
Sameh Sidhom (Egypt) 4-1.481-8
Semih Sayginer (Turkey) 3-1.951-13
Jérémy Bury (France) 3-1.538-9
Lütfi Cenet (Turkey) 2-1.682-10
The numbers 2 from the groups:
Torbjörn Blomdahl (Sweden) 2-2.033-11
Marco Zanetti (Italy) 2-1.880-10
Jacob Sörensen (Denmark) 2-1.777-7
Myung-Woo Cho (Korea) 2-1.775-8
Javier Teran (Ecuador) 2-1.696-9
Javier Vera (Mexico) 2-1.642-11
Duc Anh Chien Nguyen (Vietnam) 2-1.575-11
Murat Naci Coklu (Turkey) 2-1.400-9
Dion Nelin (Denmark) 2-1.363-6
Pedro Gonzalez (Colombia) 2-1.340-6
Yusuke Mori (Japan) 2-1.296-9
Arnim Kahofer (Austria) 2-1.222-10
Gwendal Maréchal (France) 2-1.048-6
Dustin Jäschke (Germany) 2-1.020-6
Erick Tellez (Costa Rica) 2-1.000-6
Sung-Won Choi (Korea) 1-1.644-11
The players who are out as the third in the groups:
Jung-Han Heo (Korea) 2-1.484-9
Michael Nilsson (Sweden) 1-1.581-6
Jan Ales (Czech) 1-0.929-14
Ruben Legazpi (Spain) 0-1.500-5
Barry van Beers (Netherlands) 1-1.392-14
Mohamed Abdin (Egypt) 0-1.125-7
Alessio D'Agata (Italy) 0-1.187-6
Mauricio Gutierrez (Colombia) 0-1.081-6
Rui Costa (Portugal) 0-1.020-4
Yasser Shehayeb (Libanon) 0-0.920-5
Thomas Andersen (Denmark) 0-0.904-10
Jose Juan Garcia (Colombia) 0-0.888-6
Christian Hernandez (Mexico) 0-1.078-6
Tatsuo Arai (Japan) 0-0.725-6
Juan Carlos Del Salto (Ecuador) 0-0.586-4
Ahmed Abdallah (Egypt) 0-0.520-5