World gold stays in Asia: Myung Woo Cho winner

09/29/2024

Published by frits bakker

BINH THUAN - For years now, Korean Myung Woo Cho has been one of the super talents on the world stage in three-cushion. The world title was still missing in his pursuit of huge success. This Sunday, Cho was crowned best in the world in Vietnam, in the country where the 76th world championship was organized for the first time. The little Korean star beamed with happiness and joy on the stage after winning the final against Vietnamese Thanh Luc Tran: 50-23 in 20/19 innings, making him 40,000 euros richer. Myung Woo Cho is the 6th Asian billiard player in billiard history to call himself world three-cushion champion following Kobayashi (1974, 1984), Umeda (2007), Choi (2014) and Bao (2023).

The climax of the tournament, Myung Woo Cho's winning carom, was a lucky kiss shot and crowned the run of 11 with which the Korean went through the finish. The new world champion brought his hand to his mouth twice to apologize and then plunged into the excitement: the cheers, the congratulations from fans, he showed national pride with the Korean flag and climbed on the podium moments later, accompanied by Thanh Luc Tran (2nd), Eddy Merckx and Dick Jaspers, the two European bronze winners. Dick Jaspers remains world number one ahead of Myung Woo Cho.

Myung Woo Cho (turned 26 on 17 August), a three-time world champion in his junior days, is in good company as a young champion. Among the major champions, only Dani Sánchez was two years younger (24) when he won his first world title, Torbjörn Blomdahl was 25, Raymond Ceulemans and Filippos Kasidokostas 26. Myung Woo Cho, once before on the podium when Bao became champion in 2023, came through the preliminaries of this World Cup by wins against Javier Vera and Radek Novak, won a second time from the Mexican and then successively defeated Dane Brian Knudsen (50-28 in 23), his compatriot Jung Han Heo in the quarter-finals (50-24 in 19), Eddy Merckx in the semi-finals (50-35 in 24) and finally the last Vietnamese, Thanh Luc Tran in the final 50-23 in 20.

The global gold race turned into a final day with two Europeans and two Asians, of whom Eddy Merckx had impressed by far the most with his victories. The Belgian was sublime and superior in the preliminary rounds with 5,000 and 2,353 average, entered the knockouts against Raymon Groot with 2,000, then beat Devogelaere with 2,778 and JJ Garcia with 2,941. Therefore, Merckx scored 2,705 before entering the final day and semi-finals. It must have been a record for a World championship, but unfortunately the end came for Merckx with the loss against Cho, the later gold winner, 50-38 in 23 innings.

The Vietnamese played a superb tournament in front of their own crowd (with many spectators on the final days) and were still with five players in the round with the best 16.

The two top favorites Quyet Chien Tran and Phuong Vinh Bao, the outgoing world champion, disappeared from the World championship shortly before the final day, leaving only Thanh Luc Tran. That still relatively unknown player put an end to Dick Jaspers' illusions in the semi-final with 50-32 in 16 (3.125 average) and had no strength left to counter Myung Woo Cho himself in the gold match.

Myung Woo Cho took the title with 2.171 on average ahead of Thanh Luc Tran with 1.855, Eddy Merckx with 2.453 and Dick Jaspers with 1.898. Six Vietnamese finished in the top 20, Frenchman Mikaël Devogelaere shone with the highest run: 18.

The final ranking at the World Championship: