LIER - On the second day of the Superprestige in the Mister 100 in Lier, another top favourite was sent home. The title holder Frédéric Caudron was eliminated in the preliminaries in a group with Steven van Acker, the group winner, Peter De Backer, the runner-up and Francis Forton, who was fourth with three losses and will not return for the final rounds like Caudron. Steven van Acker, who lost in the second session to Caudron (40-11 in 15), defeated Peter De Backer 40-38 in 26 and in the last round Francis Forton 40-36 in 21. Therefor Van Acker finished on top of the group with the highest average: 1.468. De Backer was second with 1.326, Caudron third with 1.247.
Peter De Backer thanked his qualification to the victory in the final round in a curious match against Caudron. The start of the match was not marked by a high level (11-8 in 15). In the second part, De Backer attacked to the win, 40-36 in 35 innings. Caudron performed in one match on his normal level this evening (40 to 15), in the other two, the Belgian champion took a barely one-average (40 in 43, 36 in 35).
The lesser weeks of Frédéric Caudron seems to be the result of the persistent cold that the number one in the world now suffers already since the World Cup in Guri. After his elimination on Tuesday night, he said: ,, I will go back to the doctor.'' And after the league in the Netherlands, this weekend, Caudron also worried about the long duration of recovery.
With the elimination of the title holder, who won all the major tournaments in Belgium in the previous year, the Superprestige lost another star player after Roland Forthomme on the first day. In two of the four rounds Jef Philipoom, Kenny Miatton, Steven van Acker and Peter De Backer qualified for the quarterfinals.
The next session, tonight (Wednesday as of 18.00) the group with Eddy Merckx, Kurt Ceulemans, Ronny Brants and Marc Celen enters the arena of the Mister 100.
The ranking of the Tuesday group:
1 Steven van Acker 4-1.468-9
2 Peter De Backer 4-1.326-10
3 Frédéric Caudron 4-1.247-9
4 Francis Forton 0-1.027-9.