HO CHI MINH - The third day of the Ho Chi Minh city World Cup: the morning shines on all those who bring a cue to the arena to take on one of the feared Vietnamese or Korean opponents. Frédéric Caudron, Eddy Leppens and Jean Paul de Bruijn take their ladies to Starbucks for a good cup of coffee. In the background, hundreds of scooters swarm at a crossroad. The young Dutchman Raymon Groot was mugged this morning, in the city. From a scooter, his telephone was grabbed out of his hand. ,,I lunged to retrieve it'', he said, ,,but all I ended up with was some chafing wounds.'' Arnim Kahofer, Sameh Sidhom and Ahmed Emam take a stroll and visit one of the city's many crowded markets.
Good morning Vietnam.
The World Cup had a spectacular start, with Semih Sayginer in the arena, Wiet Kaethoven, the ever-smiling O Takeshima, the congenial Vinh Ly The, two cosmopolitans without illusions in the World Cup: Ronald van Geyt and Sylvia Eckel. And there are a Vietnamese and a Korean player who both produce a three average game in the morning hours. Sayginer almost tops them: he runs a fourteen in the fifth inning, misses match ball in the ninth, then finishes with a fluke in the next (30-4 in 10).
Are we being treated to extraordinary three cushion this early, you say? Three matches with a three average in three hours time, and the world's best players will only join the field the day after tomorrow.
The Vietnamese three cushion, if it had not already, has put itself firmly on the map in the opening days. We all knew about the hundreds of Koreans who can average over 1, but we now also know about the potential in Vietnam. Watch it all on Kozoom.
The nice lady at the microphone has barely announced the matches, and the fireworks start. Run of ten, run of eleven, run of fourteen. Thirty in ten for Kien Duc Hua, thirty in ten for Durk Hee Hwang, thirty in ten for Semih Sayginer. O Takeshima (2.500), Minh Cam Ma and Tae Soo Lim (2.142), Vinh Ly The, An Toan Nguyen, Jin Pyo Hong (1.875) and the young Japanese Yusuke Mori (1.785) are not far behind. And the day was closed by Quang Hai Dinh with 1.875, Birol Uymaz, eliminated because of his first loss, 1.666 and Duy Trung Nguyen 1.578.
O Takeshima seems to be back with a good victory in his second match (30 in 12, 2.500). The player from Japan made history some years ago at the World championship in Porto, where he eliminated Dick Jaspers, but not a lot was heard from the man with the comical first name "O", who should succeed the Kobayashi's, Komori's and Umeda's.
Semih Sayginer
Semih Sayginer quickly landed back on earth after his brilliant opening match. As it has happened more often since his comeback, his game lacks consistency. Semih goes from inspired to erratic and gets harshly punished for it in this field. Ji-Hoon Ahn, who needed 19 innings in his first match against Hiroshi Sasaki, was granted 23 visits to the table by Sayginer, and he took those chances: 30 - 23. No main tournament for the Turk, another disillusion in a World Cup. He was the second on the reserve list with 1.606!
Ji Hun Ahn outplayed Semih Sayginer
The top sixteen today:
1 Hwang-Durk Hee 4-2.400-14
2 Duy Trung Nguyen 4-1.621-7
3 Tae Soo Lim 4-1.578-12
4 Quang Hai Dinh 4-1.538-7
5 O Takeshima 4-1.500-11
6 Vinh Ly The 4-1.500-8
7 Ji Hun Ahn 4-1.428-8
8 Tae Jun Oh 4-1.363-8
9 Hao Tri Vo 4-1.363-6
10 Dae Kwon Shin 4-1.304-7
11 Duc Minh Tran 4-1.200-5
12 Minh Thien Vuong 4-1.132-6
13 Kwang Yeol Park 4-1.000-7
14 Ngoc Long Nguyen 4-0.937-5
15 Sang Dae Lee 3-1.250-5
16 Keon Hwi Cho 2-1.181-6.
Japanese O Takeshima is back
The groups for the last qualification day:
A: Choong-Bok Lee, O Takeshima, Quang Ha Dinh
B: Hyung Bum Hwang, Tae Soo Lim, Vinh Ly The
C: Duy Trun Nguyen, Ji Hun Ahn, Murat Naci Coklu
D: Durk Hee Hwang, Tae Jun Oh, Adnan Yüksel
E: Jung-Han Heo, Jae-Guen Kim, Hao Tri Vo
F: Hyung Kon Kim, Dae Kwon Shin, Eddy Leppens
G: Dinh Nai Ngo, Duc Minh Tran, Chi Yeon Cho
H: Tolgahan Kiraz, Minh Thien Yuong, Pedro Piedrabuena
I: Hyun Min Seo, Kwang Yeol Park, Tatsuo Arai
J: Arnim Kahofer, Ngoc Long Nguyen, Lütfi Cenet
K: Regay Henry, Sang Dae Lee, Xuan Cuong Ma
L: Anh Vu Duong, Murat Tüzül, Keon Hwi Cho.
Arnim Kahofer (middle) with his two Egyptian friends on the market in Ho Chi Minh
Vinh Ly The, the number six of the day ranking