CARTAGENA – The climax at the Women's three-cushion World Championship will be a battle between Therese Klompenhouwer, the five-time world champion, and three Asian ladies. Two Koreans face each other in the semifinals, Therese Klompenhouwer meets the for now pretty unknown Vietnamese player Thi Lien Nguyen. The stars are favorable for the Dutch player, who showed up in the best match so far. In the Dutch clash in the last eight, Therese defeated her friend, compatriot, and competitor Karina Jetten 30-11 in 20, with averages 1.500 and 0.550. The Asian trio for the final rounds made a solid but not really spectacular impression. Bo Mi Choi was the best with a victory over Gülsen Degener 30-19 in 32/31. That match was evenly matched for a long time, until the Turkish player, at a score 19-17 in her favor, suddenly collapsed with 9 zeros in her 9 innings. Bo Mi Choi remained cool-headed and won 30-19 in 32.
Therese Klompenhouwer took control of the match against Karina Jetten with a solid start, in which Jetten produced ten zeros at 6-3 and faced a 17-3 gap. That was Jetten’s knock-out: Therese had a wonderful finish with 8 for a final score 30-11 in 20. “I know Karina inside out,” Klompenhouwer said after the match. “She can score a lot of points in a few innings when she gets into her rhythm, so I knew I couldn't wait too long.” Ha Eun Kim, the other Korean, defeated Jackeline Perez from Peru 30-17 in 38, Thi Lien Nguyen beat Claudia Chacon from Colombia 30-25 in by far the longest match, 56 innings. Therese Klompenhouwer will play the first semifinal tomorrow, Thursday, at 11.00 against Nguyen, while the two Korean ladies will face each other at 13.00 (final at 16.00) The Vietnamese player is 27 and is playing three-cushion for only three years. At the start of her career, she played for one year in the LPBA and now for two years in the UMB.
The run-up to the matches with the best 8 had a remarkable course. The Spanish Estela Cardoso had a blackout against Jackeline Perez and lost in 71/70 innings. Therese Klompenhouwer was already a tough winner against Litsa Mavridoglu, the unpredictable Greek, who put up a long fight and finally lost 30-26 in 33 innings.
Therese said later: “She played really well, made all the makeable points. Only at the end did she got a little stressed and started missing, which allowed me to take advantage just in time. That was another victory of mentality.” The Greek was even leading 26-21, but missed nine balls in a row in the heat of the battle.
Karina Jetten played the best game of the entire field in that round with a victory over Yuko Nishimoto: 30-17 in 29 innings. Nguyen won the battle with Japan's Fukao, Chacon with Japan's Miyashita. Belgium's Jaimie Buelens, who played a strong tournament, fell just short against Ha Eun Kim, 30-27 in 36. Bo Mi Choi was the better of Magali Declunder, 30-28 in 58, while Gülsen Degener defeated Johana Sandoval, 30-26 in 44.
Korean Bo Mi Choi, who outplayed Charlotte Sörensen and is facing Ha Eun Kim in the semi finals
Ha Eun Kim in her second World championship
Vietnamese Thi Liên Nguyễn, only three years of three cushion