ANTWERP - The sixteen groups, into which the 48 players for the World Championship three cushion in Antwerp are divided, have been announced today. The current world champion, Eddy Merckx starts off in Group A with two feared opponents: the Vietnamese Ngo Dinh Nai, who reached the semi-finals in the World Cup in Korea, and Peter Ceulemans.
Frédéric Caudron meets Frenchman Jérôme Barbeillon and Italian Emilio Sciacca in Group B, Jérémy Bury faces one of the five top Korean players, Jung Han Heo.
Marco Zanetti will play in a group with Jef Philipoom, the former world champion (1995) who received a wildcard for the WC.
Dick Jaspers and Jean Paul de Bruijn, the only two Dutch players, are divided into the same group of three of which the winner advances to the main tournament. The Czech Martin Bohac is the third player in this group.
The multiple American champion Pedro Piedrabuena encounters Sung-Won Choi, the Korean who played the final against Eddy Merckx in the last World Championship in Porto.
A strong threesome is classified in Group I with Kyung-Roul Kim, Ryuuji Umeda and Sergio Jimenez.
Lütfi Cenet faces the winner of the World Cup in Guri, the Korean coming man Koong Kang Dong.
Murat Naci Coklu, Eddy Leppens and Huberney Catano battle for victory in Group M.
The groups are:
Group A: Eddy Merckx, Dinh Nai Ngo, Peter Ceulemans
B: Torbjorn Blomdahl, Riad Nady, Javier Teran
C: Frédéric Caudron, Jérôme Barbeillon, Emilio Sciacca
D: Jérémy Bury, Jung Han Heo, Michael Lohse
E: Marco Zanetti, Jef Philipoom, Khaled Salem
F: Dani Sánchez, Kouji Funaki, Arnim Kahofer
G: Dick Jaspers, Jean Paul de Bruijn, Martin Bohac
H: Sung Won Choi, Christian Rudolph, Pedro Piedrabuena
I: Kyung-Roul Kim, Ryuuji Umeda, Sergio Jimenez
J: Jae Ho Cho, Nikos Polychronopoulos, Miguel Canton
K: Filippos Kasidokostas, O Takeshima, William Villanueva
L: Lütfi Cenet, Dong Koong Kang, Alexander Salazar
M: Murat Naci Coklu, Eddy Leppens, Huberney Catano
N: Adnan Yüksel, Roland Forthomme, Michael Kang
O: Martin Horn, Sameh Sidhom, Mario Aranha
P: Tayfun Tasdemir, Choong-Bok Lee, Juan Carlos del Salto.