HURGHADA - The last day of qualifications at the World Cup in Hurghada showed an explosion of high runs. Myung-Woo Cho shone with 22, Dani Sánchez the day's number one, with 19 and 13. Jérémy Bury with 17, Tafyfun Tasdemir with 15, Birol Uymaz 14, Filippos Kasidokostas and Lütfi Cenet 12 and Jacop Sörensen equalized with 11 in his match against Nikos Polychronopoulos. The top five on the last day of pre-rounds were Dani Sánchez, Myung-Woo Cho, Tayfun Tasdemir, Seung Jin Lee and Birol Uymaz. Known players who did not reach the main event were Martin Horn (1.500), Can Capak (1.638), Jae-Guen Kim, Dong-Koong Kang, Anh Vu Duong, David Martinez and Eddy Leppens.
Four Turkish star players finished in the top twelve of the day: Tayfun Tasdemir, Birol Uymaz, Lütfi Cenet and Adnan Yüksel. Three Koreans joined the two Greek key players Kasidokostas and Polychronopoulos, two Spaniards, Sánchez and Zapata and the Frenchman Jérémy Bury. The three runners-up to go the main tournament are Jacob Sörensen, Dion Nelin and Roland Forthomme.
The petulant 20-year-old Myung-Woo Cho from Dani Sánchez' Korean sponsor stable, jumps from one highlight to another in this period of his early career. The previous World Cup in Seoul is still clearly in mind where Cho scored a run of 24 in the 3rd inning of his match against Tonny Carlsen. He finished only after 12 innings, while he only needed 10 innings in Hurghada for 40-19 win. What a wonderful coincidence when Cho scored his 24 in Seoul, he could have exactly equaled the world record best run of 28. In today's match, the 28 was also the best possible, because with his 22, Cho came to a total of 34.
The Korean coming-man had a difficult opponent when he played Glenn Hoffman in his first game of the day. The Dutchman, Hoffman led 35-32 when Cho finished the match with an 8 and out. Also in his first match, Hoffman ran into a strong finisher in Can Capak. Capak trailed 21-10 when he ran a 10 and eventually won 40-29. No matter how strong the Turk was, Capak had no chance to compete with Cho after his Cho's run of 22.
Dani Sánchez, with his two match wins, was the best of the twelve groups. The Spaniard, who will give his best for sure to return to the top ten, had to show up for the first time in the preliminaries. Dani showed his high class in both matches: 40-29 against Kiraz in 15 innings (run 13), 40-19 against Jae-Guen Kim in 13 innings (run 19). That brought him to a daily average of 2.857.
Dani Sánchez, on his way back with his high runs in Hurghada?
Tayfun Tasdemir, one of the four Turkish star players in the top twelve
The day ranking:
1 Dani Sánchez 4-2.857-19
2 Myung-Woo Cho 4-2.500-22
3 Tayfun Tasdemir 4-2.105-15
4 Seung Jin Lee 4-2.000-10
5 Birol Uymaz 4-1.951-14
6 Lütfi Cenet 4-1.951-12
7 Jérémy Bury 4-1.777-17
8 Filippos Kasidokostas 4-1.777-12
9 Adnan Yüksel 4-1.481-9
10 Juan David Zapata 4-1.212-6
11 Sung-Uk Oh 3-1.538-8
12 Nikos Polychronopoulos 3-1.538-6
The three runners-up:
1 Jacop Sörensen 3-1.403-11
2 Dion Nelin 2-1.717-9
3 Roland Forthomme 2-1.688-10.
The main draw, starting on Thursday from 12.00 Egyptian time
Caudron-Zapata
Nguyen Quoc Nguyen-Uymaz
Blomdahl-Abdallah
Zanetti-Tasdemir
14.00:
Coklu-Polychronopoulos
Sayginer-Kasidokostas
Choi-Forthomme
Merckx-Fouda
16.00:
HJ Kim-Lee
Myung-Woo Cho-Yüksel
Tran-Bury
Sánchez-Catano
18.00:
Heo-Nelin
Jae-Ho Cho-Oh
Sidhom-Sörensen
Jaspers-Cenet.