BOGOTÁ - Two days of the World Cup in Bogotá have been played and the first big names have already passed in the arena. The second was not the day of Ramón Rodriguez, not of Erick Tellez, of Henry Diaz and of Therese Klompenhouwer. In the end it was the day of one Spaniard, one Vietnamese and one Colombian in the top three ranking. Sergio Jimenez, Thanh Tien Le and Daniel Moreno led the ranking on that second day, Jimenez with the best average 1.764. Therese Klompenhouwer, the world's best women's player, had an outstanding start, making the best run of the day (12), but was eliminated after a minor second match.
The 16 winners on the second day came from seven countries. Home country Colombia had eight group winners of whom Daniel Moreno was the best with four match points and 1.666. Julian Morales and Andres Naranjo are familiar names, Ecuadorian Luis Aveiga made one small slip with a draw, but went into the next rounds as number 14. German Tom Löwe closed the winners' row, Dutchman Reggie Brouwers fell just outside, but may join the Wednesday sessions as best reserve.
Therese Klompenhouwer landed in the middle group after her second performance, which was not in the shadow of the first match of the Dutch, who had been invited for TV interviews and exhibitions in clubs for the trip to Colombia. ''I’m having a great time here,'' assured the multiple world and European champion. Why things went so wrong in sportive way after that first win was a mystery to Therese herself. ''I didn't play well, got bad positions and had a few unfortunate misses.'' Cesar Garzon was the winner of that group by his win over Klompenhouwer 30-24 in 39 innings.
It was in stark contrast to Therese’s start against Frenchman Pinard, who started Klompenhouwer with 12 in the 5th inning and finished with 4 and 1 in the 19th, good for 1.578 on average. Even better on that second day were the matches of Colombian Daniel Moreno with 30 in 14, Turk Ahmet Koseoglu (30 in 15 innings), Vietnamese Thanh Tien Le (30 in 15) and Sergio Jimenez, the day's winner (twice 30 in 17).
Tuesday's 16 group winners:
- Sergio Jimenez 4-1,764-6
- Thanh Tien Le 4-1.666-11
- Daniel Moreno 4-1,666-7
- Viet Hoang Minh Thon 4-1,428-8
- Ahmet Koseoglu 4-1,3956
- Julian Morales 4-1,304-6
- Sergio Hernandez 4-1,153-8
- Andres Naranjo 4-1,132-6
- Jhon Fredy Martinez 4-1,016-5
- Andres Lizarazo 4-0,983-5
- Cesar Garzon 4-0,967-4
- Manolis Minaoglu 4-0.882-6
- Vangelis Moulos 4-0.869-7
- Luis Aveiga 3-1,250-5
- Alexander Munoz 3-1,000-8
- Tom Löwe 2-1,180-8
The best-known names in the groups for Thursday:
Group A with Omer Karakurt, Tom Löwe
Group B: Gökhan Salman, Gülsen Degener
Group C: Luis Aveiga, Alain Saeys, Reggy Brouwers
Group D: Glenn Hofman, Vangelis Moulos, Gurhan Kabak
Group G: Huberney Cataño, Andres Lizarazo, Pierre Soumagne
Group H: Ronny Lindemann, Jhon Fredy Martinez, Ja In Kang
Group I: Mehmet Goren, Huub Wilkowski, Andres Naranjo
Group J: Hugo Patino, Sergio Hernandez
Group K: Jose Juan Garcia, Julian Morales, Takao Miyashita
Group L: Turgay Orak, Lukas Stamm
Group M: Henry Diaz, Viet Hoang Minh Thon, Volkan Cetin
Group N: Joey de Kok, Daniel Moreno, Javier Vera
Group O: Thanh Tien Le, Kevin Vasseur
Group P: Sergio Jimenez, Jose Miguel Soares, Claus Maurer.