NEW YORK - The flash back still triggers a moment of emotion. The Korean player Dong Koong Kang just missed out the final win at the World championship in Bordeaux in a fantastic match against Torbjörn Blomdahl. The Swede fought back from a lost position and eventually was crowned the new world champion. Two years after Sung-Won Choi in his own South Korea, a new, huge success for the country with its impressive armada of talents was so close.
The 36-year-old Dong Koong Kang still grasps his head in desperation when he is reminded of the final. He just had won a big, experimental tournament in a shopping centre in Seoul where he won the remarkable sum - for billiards - of 38.000 euros. The world title in the following months could have made him immortal. The Korean has now dropped to tenth place in the world rankings and seventh on the Korean ranking. He still belongs to the absolute stars of the Asian generation. This week, Kang took to the start in the Verhoeven Open in the Carom Cafe in New York. In the preliminaries he showed why he should be counted among the favourites for the title. The Korean played an average of 1.894 in his five matches, with a peak of 25 in seven innings, good for 3,571.
His performance is the second in New York, the first time dates eight years back. This time he overcame the jetlag already. ,,I started with a tough match, against Jun Tae Kim, one of the new Korean stars. There was no time to adapt to the billiards, which are different and with less speed than in Korea.'' But like any big player, Kang grows in the tournament: short matches to 25 points in 11, 10, 18 and 20, culminating in seven innings against the poor Mexican Rufino Perez, who looked at a spiteful 25-1 on the scoreboard.
Dong Koong Kang says that he wants nothing less than to take revenge this year for his missed opportunity at the world's in Bordeaux. The tournament in New York is one of the priorities this year, followed by the World Cup in Korea and the World championships, again in Bordeaux.
Tayfun Tasdemir, best man in the preliminaries so far
Tayfun Tasdemir, with five wins and 2.404, finished with the best average of 105 players on the second day. And with Tasdemir, 19 players remained unbeaten. Among those was Michael Kang, the Carom Café owner with eight match points out of four and a 1.493 average. Roland Forthomme escaped in his match against the 25-year young Korean Kang Lee, who lives in New York and is one of the better pool players in the world.
The Koreans prevailed with Jae Ho Cho (ten points, 1.866), Dong Koong Kang (also ten out of five), Keonhwi Cho, Kang Lee, William Oh, Kyu Tae Lee and Song Lim. Semih Saygıner had to put up a hard fight against the Vietnamese Vinh The Ly to remain the leader of his group after five matches. The Turkish wizard, who has had a cold for two days now, made a highly focused impression and finished at 20-19 with five in 14 innings.
,,I feel really sick, but I will continue to play'', Semih announced after his match. ,,The most important reason to come here was to maintain my form, that I had during the World Cup in Porto. There, for the first time I had the feeling that I'm back. I came to New York primarily to keep that match rhythm. Hopefully I'm completely fit on the days of the main event.''
Haeng Jik Kim, chasing to survive after a start with two losses
Haeng Jik Kim, who started the tournament with two losses, was trying to secure his qualification on the second day. The almost certain group winners are, for now, Tayfun Tasdemir (10 points, 2.404), Jae Ho Cho (10 points, 1.866), Martin Horn (10 points, 1.623), Dong Koong Kang (10 points, 1.894), Huberney Cataño (10 points, 1.225), Quyet Chien Tran (10 points, 1.453), Semih Saygıner (10 points, 1.344), Hugo Patino (10 points, 1.096), Murat Naci Coklu (10 points, 1.563), Jérémy Bury (10 points, 1.563), Michael Kang (10 points, 1.238), Roland Forthomme (10 points, 1.437), Keonhwi Cho (10 points, 1.437) and Sonny Cho (10 points , 1.168).
Murat Naci Coklu, one of the players who are still unbeaten
The qualification for the second round, in which the five seeded players Torbjörn Blomdahl, Frédéric Caudron, Eddy Merckx, Dick Jaspers and Raymond Ceulemans enter, will be completed on Wednesday. The top two finishers in the fifteen groups proceed together with the two best numbers three. Those 32 players are complemented by the seeded players, two highest bidders and one player form the lottery to come to forty semi finalists, who start the second part of the tournament from 16.30 (US time).
Roland Forthomme was facing a backlog for a long time against Kang Lee, a 25-year Korean who lives in New York and is one of the better pool players in the world
Huberney Cataño, the only Colombian in the field, is the leader in his group
Martin Horn, despite a lack of World Cup matches, among the best in New York