VIERSEN - The flags of the best countries in the world of billiards will wave from the Festhalle in Viersen, Germany this week. They wave for the World championship three cushion for national teams. The Koreans defend the title in the tournament that is played according to the Scotch Double system. The main contenders for the title are Belgium, Korea, Vietnam, the Netherlands, Turkey and Greece, but Austria and Denmark like last year and the German home team are feared outsiders in the field with sixteen countries.
The Koreans start in Viersen with a different team than the team that claimed the world title last year. The biggest billiard country in the world, Korea took that title with Sung-Won Choi (40) and Dong-Koong Kang (37) in an unexpected final against Austria with Andreas Efler and Arnim Kahofer. In the German arena, and for hundreds of thousands of viewers on Kozoom and more than a million tv viewers in their own South Korea, the Koreans dominated all the top European countries. The Asians beat Austria 40-30 in 23 innings in the final. Therefore they prolonged the title.
This year, the reigning champion shows up with Haeng-Jik Kim and Jae-Ho Cho, two of the top players in the world ranking. The Europeans, who dominate individual tournaments like World Cups, World Championship and Master tournaments are eager for revenge. The Belgians with Frédéric Caudron and Eddy Merckx are among the top favorites as the Netherlands (Dick Jaspers/Raimond Burgman), Turkey (Murat Naci Coklu/Lütfi Cenet), Greece (Filippos Kasidokostas/Nikos Polychronopoulos) and Vietnam (Nguyen Quoc Nguyen/Quyet Chien Tran). The Austrians and the Danes, starting in the same line-up, showed last year that they are real tournament fighters. The big absents are Swedens (Torbjörn Blomdahl), Spains (Dani Sánchez) and Italy (Marco Zanetti).
The Germans Martin Horn and Ronny Lindemann make their entrance with a new national coach in the arena. Christian Rudolph the 54-year-old routine player from Bottrop with victories at this World championship, succeeds Wolfgang Zenkner, who wanted to step back. ''We are very happy with Christian Rudolph as the new coach", says Ronny Lindemann, who started the training camp in Bottrop with the team this Monday.
The opening ceremony is on Thursday (March 14) at 11:00am, followed by the first matches at 12:00am. On Friday and Saturday mornings the next matches for the preliminaries are from 11:00am. The quarter finals are on Saturday at 5:00pm, the semi-finals are on Sunday at 11:00am and the final will be on Sunday at 2:00pm.
Sports director is Mr. Farouk Barki, CEB delegate is Diane Wild, for Germany it is Helmut Biermann. The tournament leader is Kurt Dalhaus, who will be succeeded by Markus Dömer after this tournament.
The group format:
Group A: Belgium, France, Japan, Mexico
Group B: Korea, Austria, Egypt, Lebanon
Group C: the Netherlands, Denmark, Greece, Vietnam
Group D: Turkey, Germany, Colombia, Peru.
The players:
Korea: HaengJik Kim, Jae-Ho Cho
Germany: Martin Horn, Ronny Lindemann
Turkey: Murat Naci Coklu, Lütfi Cenet
The Netherlands: Dick Jaspers, Raimond Burgman
Greece: Filippos Kasidokostas, Nikos Polychronopoulos
Denmark: Tonny Carlsen, Thomas Andersen
Belgium: Frédéric Caudron, Eddy Merckx
France: Jérémy Bury, Gwendal Maréchal
Austria: Andreas Efler, Arnim Kahofer
Colombia: Robinson Morales, Huberney Cataño
Mexico: Raymundo Munoz, Adrian Garcia
Peru: Christopher Tevez, Guido Saco
Japan: Yusuke Mori, Nobuyasu Sakai
Vietnam: Nguyen Quoc Nguyen, Quyet Chien Tan
Lebanon: Kalfat Jihad, Shehayeb Yasser
Egypt: Sameh Sidhom, Mohsen Fouda.
The new German coach Christian Rudolph
The Festhalle in Viersen where the world championship is played this week