SEOUL - The two Koreans In-Won Kang and Wan Young Choi, who are respectively 126th and 63rd in the world ranking, will return for the final rounds on the last day at the Survival 3C Masters in Seoul. The two players without a serious track record are the revelations of the tournament, in which big champions like Frédéric Caudron, Eddy Merckx Murat Naci Coklu, Sung-Won Choi, Tayfun Tasdemir and Semih Sayginer have been eliminated for the podium places in the pre-rounds. Dani Sánchez caused the biggest stunt in the quarters, when he qualified in the final sprint with a run of 13 to outplay HaengJik Kim.
Two Europeans and two Koreans, Torbjörn Blomdahl, Marco Zanetti, Wan Young Choi and In-Won Kang, were the winners of the four matches in the quarterfinals. Dick Jaspers, Jung-Han Heo, Dani Sánchez and Jae-Ho Cho went as the runners-up to the final station with eight players. Blomdahl and Jaspers finished with equal points and eliminated Caudron and Coklu. Wan-Young Choi achieved the best score of the day (104), In-Won Kang the best average, 2.714. They skyrocketed like comets to the Masters finals.
Three Koreans, Wan Young Choi, Jung-Han Heo and Jae-Ho Cho play together with Torbjörn Blomdahl in the first semi-final at 5:00pm Korean time (10:00 Western Europe). Three Europeans, Marco Zanetti, Dick Jaspers and Dani Sánchez play with In-Won Kang in the second semi-final at 7:00pm (12.00 Western Europe).
The overview of the four competitions:
Group A:
The top scorer of the pre-rounds, Murat Naci Coklu, cannot impress in a fight with three rivals with a big honour list. Frédéric Caudron scores two runs of eight before the break and leads the ranking at the stop with 55 points followed by Dick Jaspers with 43. Torbjörn Blomdahl is far behind with 7 points, but starts his attack in the second part. The Swede scores 7, 8 and 5 and passes Caudron. Dick Jaspers, with 7, 4 and 4 after the break, qualifies with Blomdahl in first place. Caudron misses his last carom over seven cushions by a kiss. Jaspers because he was mistaken in time-outs and wanted to request a third stop. Caudron and Coklu are out.
Group A ranking:
1 Torbjörn Blomdahl 73-2.214-8
2 Dick Jaspers 72-2.214-7
3 Frédéric Caudron 61-2,000-8
4 Murat Naci Coklu 33-1.500-7
Group B:
The best start and the best finish is for Marco Zanetti. With the eleven in the final sprint, the Italian finishes twelve points before his only rival, Jung-Han Heo. Zanetti leads at the break 39-18. In the back, at the stop, are Tayfun Tasdemir and Martin Horn with 3 points. That margin is also at the finish line: Tasdemir and Horn, both of them had a bad start with 7 misses in 9 innings, finish at a distance.
Ranking in Group B:
1 Marco Zanetti 95-1.882-11
2 Jung-Han Heo 83-1705-8
3 Tayfun Tasdemir 31-0,941-6
4 Martin Horn 31-0,941-4
Group C:
The not so well-known Korean Wan Young Choi continues his amazing performance at the Masters. Dani Sánchez escapes with a run of 13 in his very last inning, leaving HaengJik Kim out for a place in the semi-finals. The Spaniard's decisive ball, his 12th carom, is a lucky shot after a kiss in the corner. Wan Young Choi, who has an almost zero winning achievement, leads with 53 points at the break after a run of 9 against HaengJik Kim 41 and Dani Sánchez 17. The Korean maintains his leading score. HaengJik Kim has almost secured second place, until Dani Sánchez launches his final sprint.
Ranking in Group C:
1 Wan Young Choi 104-2.187-9
2 Dani Sánchez 72-1.687-13
3 HaengJik Kim 56-1.437-6
4 Dinh Nai Ngo 8-0.687-6
Group D:
The very strong In-Won Kang already leads at the stop with 46 points ahead of Jae-Ho Cho with 45 and Eddy Leppens with 30. The Belgian makes a shot at the qualification with runs of 6 and 4 in his last five innings. He seems to be on the way to finish in the shadow of In-Won Kang. In a final attempt, Jae-Ho Cho manages to pass Leppens with 4-1-2 in his last three innings. The hope for an additional inning is prevented by Sung-Won Choi. Due to Choi's last time-out of Choi, the time goes slowly down to 0 seconds.
Ranking in Group D:
1 In-Won Kang 92-2.714-7
2 Jae-Ho Cho 71-2.285-10
3 Eddy Leppens 64-2.071-7
4 Sung-Won Choi 13-0.800-2.
