LOMMEL - The Verhoeven tournament in New York is just behind us, Eddy Leppens and Semih Sayginer are still travelling around with the Campos brothers in Mexico for some exhibitions, the next World Cup in Vietnam is not so far away and the Belgian Superprestige is in full preparation. The sixteen best Belgian three cushion players fill the arena in De Adelberg in Lommel in about a month, from 24 to 29 August.
The defending champion is Frédéric Caudron, the player in the best form this year was Eddy Leppens, the organizer of the Superprestige, who among other took the Belgian championship and the Belgian Cup.
He leads the ranking followed by Eddy Merckx, Frédéric Caudron and Jef Philipoom, the four which head the groups of four.
Frédéric Caudron won last year's high level final against Eddy Merckx. That was the eighth time the former world champion won the Superprestige. The tournament is the traditional season start in Belgian in De Adelberg in Lommel, where Eddy Leppens and his organization welcome the audience in a special atmosphere.
The group stages are from Monday to Thursday. The quarter finals on Friday as of 19.00, the semi-finals on Saturday at 14.00, the final at 17.00. The youth tournament is from 1000 pm on Friday.
The top sixteen ranking (with averages):
1 Eddy Leppens 1.712
2 Eddy Merckx 1.849
3 Frédéric Caudron 1.786
4 Jef Philipoom 1.377
5 Peter De Backer 1.364
6 Roland Forthomme 1.501
7 Ronnie Daniels 1.141
8 Peter Ceulemans 1.379
9 Henk Blauwblomme 1.137
10 Stven van Acker 1.137
11 Kenny Miatton 1.188
12 Davy van Havere 1.234
13 Marco Janssen 1.130
14 Martin Spoormans 1.260
15 Kurt Ceulemans 1.216
16 Marc Dellaert 0.838.
The groups:
Group A: Eddy Leppens, Peter Ceulemans, Henk Blauwblomme, Marc Dellaert
Group B: Eddy Merckx, Ronnie Daniels, Steven van Acker, Kurt Ceulemans
Group C: Frédéric Caudron, Roland Forthomme, Kenny Miatton, Martin Spoormans
Group D: Jef Philipoom, Peter De Backer, Davy van Havere, Marco Janssen.