HO CHI MINH - The multiple American champion Pedro Piedrabuena made a long journey to the World Cup in Ho Chi Minh for a hopeless mission against the Turk Tolgahan Kiraz. The Korean coming man, Hyung Bum Hwang, top ten players in the world ranking, was painfully knocked down by the ranking leader, Vietnamese Vinh Ly The. And of the twelve Turkish players, coming from one of the strongest billiard nations in the world, are only three left.
The luminaries of the final day: Vinh Ly The (1.860) Tolgahan Kiraz (1.818), Lürfi Cenet (1.600), Tatsuo Arai (1.568), Chi Yeon Cho, Hwi Keon Cho Choong and Lee Bok (all three 1.481). The other group winners: Xuan Cuong Ma, Duy Trung Nguyen, Tae Jun Oh, Jung-Han Heo and Eddy Leppens. Five Koreans, three Vietnamese, two Turks, one Japanese and one Belgian.
The four best runners-up for the main tournament: Ji Hun Ahn, Dae Kwon Shin, Quang Hai Din and Jae Guen Kim.
Kwang Yeol Park (fifteen-run) and Adnan Yüksel (fourteen-run) couldn't make it for the final twelve.
Four days of preliminaries in the hot Vietnamese city were closed with a top sixteen, at least seven well known players finished in their shadows: Hyung Bum Hwang, Pedro Piedrabuena, Murat Naci Coklu, Adnan Yüksel, Ahn Vu Duong, Murat Tüzül and Arnim Kahofer may pack their bags and return home.
Choong-Bok Lee escaped from the clutches in his match against Quang Hai Dinh (40-38) in his final group match. Vinh Ly The was a supreme winner and defeated Hyung Bum Hwang 40-19 in 20. Duy Trung Nguyen won his group followed by Ji Hun Ahn with whom he played a draw. Murat Naci Coklu finished down below with two losses.
Tae Jun Oh won his group with Adnan Yüksel by a victory against the Turk 40-39 in 30 innings. Adnan may leave with 1.410 average. Jung-Han Heo was on top of his group on average followed by Jae Guen Kim and Hao Tri Vo.
Adnan Yüksel missed the top twelve on one carom
Eddy Leppens had a slow start with a loss, then recovered against Dae Kwon Shin, whom he bested with a lightning start (13 run) 40-31 in 18. Lütfi Cenet showed himself the best against Arnim Kahofer (40-32 in 26), Xuan Cuong Ma was a moderate winner (1.250), Keon Cho Hwi outplayed Murat Tüzül and Anh Vu Duong, who played a draw against each other.
Chi Yeon Cho won his group with Ngo Dinh Nai and Duc Minh Tean, Tolgahan Kiraz was outstanding against Piedrabuena (40-17 in 18) and Tatsuo Arai showed his experience and high class against two Koreans: he defeated Kwang Yeol Park, the man who previously made the final run of fifteen.
Farouk Barki announced the matches for the knock out stage at the end of the preliminary rounds. The draw for the main tournament resulted in a number of attractive matches like Frédéric Caudron-Jung-Han Heo, who met in the World Cup in Porto (winner Heo), Marco Zanetti-Jéremy Bury and Quoc Nguyen Nguyen-Roland Forthomme.
Vinh Ly The topped the day ranking
The top twelve today:
1 Vinh Ly The 4-1.860-7
2 Tolgahan Kiraz 4-1.818-7
3 Lütfi Cenet 4-1.600-9
4 Tatsuo Arai 4-1.568-8
5 Chi Yeon Cho 4-1.481-11
6 Keon Hwi Cho 4-1.481-7
7 Choong-Bok Lee 4-1.481-6
8 Xuan Cuong Ma 4-1.250-9
9 Duy Trung Nguyen 3-1.454-7
10 Tae Jun Oh 3-1.126-9
11 Jung-Han Heo 2-1.756-8
12 Eddy Leppens 2-1674-13
De vier beste runners up:
1 Ji Hun Ahn 3-1.403-10
2 Dae Kwon Shin 2-1.613-7
3 Quang Hai Dinh 2-1.591-7
4 Jae Guen Kim 2-1.571-10.
The draw for the main tournament, with ten Koreans:
1st session:
Torbjörn Blomdahl-Keon Hwi Cho
Lütfi Cenet-Ramon Rodriguez
Roland Forthomme-Quoc Nguyen Nguyen
Marco Zanetti-Jérémy Bury
2nd session:
Vinh Ly The-Quyet Chien Tran
Frédéric Caudron-Jung-Han Heo
Jean Paul de Bruijn-Sameh Sidhom
Eddy Merckx-Choong-Bok Lee
3rd session:
Dick Jaspers-Dae Kwon Shin
Tayfun Tasdemir-Quang Hai Dinh
Dani Sánchez-Tae Jun Oh
Dong Koong Kang-Eddy Leppens
4th session:
Jae Ho Cho-Ji Hun Ahn
Tatsuo Arai-Xuan Cuong Ma
Tolgahan Kiraz-Duy Trung Nguyen
Sung-Won Choi-Chi Yeon Cho.
Torbjörn Blomahl interviewed by the tv stations in Ho Chi Minh
Chi Yeon Cho
Pedro Piedrabuena