3-Cushion
HURGHADA - They did not deserve beauty prizes... and for sure it was not the climax of the day when Nalle Olsson closed his match against his Danish opponent Claus Foge with the winning carom. The lights of the tournament hall were turned off after a hard fought match. The Viking clan remained in the stands, they only could cheer for some nice caroms at the end.
The Swedish heavyweight Olsson had made a super start in the early afternoon against Ralf Lenz with 30-7 in 15. My best party ever, I think'', he said after the blood-sweat and teers match with Foge (30-19 in 34).
Ronny Lindemann just came in from his match in the small room with a pleasant smile on his face. The German defeated one of the Korean guys who is not exactly his friend. Hyun-Suk Kim was trumped in the middle of the match by a decisive run of thirteen.
How close qualification and elimination are to each other, was seen once more when Greek Kostas Papakonstantinou and Italian Emilio Scicca battled in two different groups. The Greek escaped miraculously, Sciacca was curiously knocked down. Papakonstantinou won his first match by one point and played a draw in his second against Dane Alan Keith in 63 innings (!!). He qualified with 3 points and 0.631.
Emilio Sciacca lost his first match, one point down, because he scored five points in the equalizer and missed his last. Then he tied with Martin Olesen and only lacked one point in two matches.
Johann Schirmbrand also survived his third day of preliminary rounds without one loss, now he defeated Riad Nady and Young Chull Kim.
Gokhan Salman, who made a swift start in the circuit, but then had a fall down, seems on the way back. The Turk had an excellent day with four match points and 1.578, just a fraction less than Murat Tüzül, who was the day winner with 4 points and 1.666.
The top sixteen:
1 Murat Tüzül 4-1.666-7
2 Gokhan Salman 4-1.578-5
3 Vinh Ly The 4-1.463-7
4 Jae Guen Kim 4-1.363-6
5 Ronny Lindemann 4-1.333-13
6 Johann Schirmbrand 4-1.304-12
7 Ivo Gazdos 4-1.276-8
8 Nalle Olsson 4-1.224-5
9 Xuan Cuong Ma 4-1.1776-5
10 Ra Hee Kim 4-1.071-5
11 Arnim Kahofer 4-0.952-5
12 Ihab El Messery 4-0.759-5
13 Birol Uymaz 3-1.111-5
14 Martin Olesen 3-1.000-7
15 Kostas Papakonstantinou 3-0.631-5
16 Tae Soo Lim 2-1.054-6 .
Bo Gustavsson and Selim Özden show up in next round as the two best runners-up.