SHARM EL SHEIKH - Who will be crowned the overall World Cup winner 2019, the second most important victory in three cushion after Torbjörn Blomdahl won the world title in Denmark last weekend? Tayfun Tasdemir and Eddy Merckx are the ranking leaders with one more World Cup to go: in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, from Sunday 8 to Saturday 14 December. The 149 participants are preparing for a Masterclass World Cup in the Hyatt Regency hotel. The temperatures fluctuate around 25 degrees, there is a bright sun in the sky every day to make life wonderful in the Egyptian resort with its stunning location.
Torbjörn Blomdahl, the new world champion, shone in the spotlight in Randers last weekend. The winner of the 2019 World Cup cycle will receive the second main prize next week. There are still many candidates for the trophy: Tayfun Tasdemir and Eddy Merckx are best placed with 188 points, Haeng-Jik Kim is third with 176, Dick Jaspers fourth with 170, Lütfi Cenet fifth with 157, Marco Zanetti, Jae-Ho Cho and Dani Sanchez only have a theoretical chance with 132, 126 and 124 points.
The Egyptians are with the most players at this last tournament: 28. The Turks have 21 participants, the Germans 15, the Koreans 14, the Dutch 9, the Spaniards with 8, the Vietnamese 7 and the Belgians 6 players.
The victories this year in the 6 World Cups so far were for Tasdemir in Antalya, Caudron in Ho Chi Minh, Palazón in Blankenberge, Jaspers in Porto, Kim in Veghel and Merckx in Guri, it is even possible that the traditionally last World Cup in Egypt ends with a seventh winner.
The seeded players in order of the world ranking, the position before the World Championship in Randers, are: Dick Jaspers, Marco Zanetti, Tayfun Tasdemir, Semih Sayginer, Eddy Merckx, Jae-Ho Cho, Quyet Chien Tran, Sameh Sidhom, Murat Naci Coklu , Jérémy Bury, Martin Horn, Jung-Han Heo and Torbjörn Blomdahl. The two wildcards of the organizer are Riad Nady and Hesham Saad, from the UMB, Guido Sacco from Peru. The ranking points of the World Cup in Seoul 2018 disappear in favor of the points for Sharm El Sheikh 2019. Eddy Merckx defends the maximum 80 points.
The tournament starts on Sunday at 11.00 (Western European time 1 hour earlier) with the first preliminaries. The last qualifying rounds on Wednesday include Dani Sánchez, Duc Anh Chien, Myung-Woo Cho, Lütfi Cenet, Dion Nelin, Roland Forthomme, Nikos Polychronopoulos and Nguyen Quoc Nguyen.
The main draw starts on Thursday at 10.00 Egyptian time. On Sunday the final day starts at 11.00, the final match is at 16.00 (15.00 Western Europe).
The winner receives 16,000 euros, the number two 10,000, the other two players on the podium 6.000. Kozoom's live broadcasts starts on Sunday and Monday for free, from Tuesday a Premium pass is required. Don't miss this last World Cup in 2019.