CAIRO
At the foot of the famous Pyraids in Cairo the three cushion world championship returns to the country of its first champion. Starting on Tuesday October 2, 48 of the best players will compete for the 71st three cushion world championship. This tournament in which Frédéric Caudron defends his title will be played from Tuesday October 2nd to Saturday October 6th. Egyptian, Edmund Soussa won the first World Championship in Reims, France in 1926. He played his last World Cup in 1933 in Cairo for the first time with just 8 players.
The strong field of 48 consists of the reigning champion Caudron, the sixteen highest ranked players in the world rankings and is supplemented by 13 European players, 8 American, 6 Asian and 2 Africans. Two players received a wildcard from the organization. The tournament hall is in the beautiful Marriott Mena House hotel. Mr. Omar Samy is the tournament director.
The Egyptian capital with 9 million inhabitants, lying on the Nile delta and famous for its pyramids, is for the fifth time organizer of the world championship three-cushion. Only Buenos Aires, with seven organizations, was more often the host of the world top players. Torbjörn Blomdahl was the last winner in Cairo in 1987, when the Belgians Raymond Ceulemans and Ludo Dielis were missing and the American Frank Torres finished second.
The first World Cup in the new era with a full attractive calendar of international tournaments puts three cushion on this historic ground in Cairo again in the spotlight. The generation of people in their fifties (Blomdahl, Jaspers, Zanetti, Caudron, Merckx) still maintains themselves in the world top rankings, youngsters like HaengJik Kim, Polychronopoulos, Tran, Heo, Sidhom and Cho are preparing for a grip on power in the period in which the aerials continue to rise in spectacular fashion.
Dick Jaspers once said in an interview about his sport, "Driebanden is the king discipline of billiards. The tension and unpredictability make it so exciting for players and audiences. The level will rise even further with a professional approach." Torbjörn Blomdahl, "3-cushion is the most fascinating game in billiards. It is a discipline that deserves more TV attention with its unlimited possibilities.''
The country of Edmund Soussa, who died in Paris on May 29, 1989, has distinguished itself by organizational talent over the years. The World Cups in Hurghada, Luxor and El Gouna and now the fifth World Championship in history have given Egypt a reputation. Sameh Sidhom is the great talent in the country and has been one of the top ten in the world ranking for years.
The World Championship starts on Tuesday October 2 at 12.00 with the first preliminaries. All matches will be broadcast live on Kozoom.
The seeded players are:
Frédéric Caudron (titleholder), Eddy Merckx, HaengJik Kim, Dick Jaspers, Jung-Han Heo, Marco Zanetti, Sung-Won Choi, Jae-Ho Cho, Murat Naci Coklu, Torbjörn Blomdahl, Sameh Sidhom, Quyet Chien Tran, Dani Sánchez, Nguyen Quoc Nguyen, Semih Sayginer, Tayfun Tasdemir, Din Nai Ngo.
The groups for the qualifications:
Poule A: Frédéric Caudron, Arnim Kahofer, Mohsen Fouda
Poule B: Eddy Merckx, Erick Tellez, Murat Celik
Poule C: HaengJik Kim, Guido Sacco, Filippos Kasidokostas
Poule D: Marco Zanetti, Ahmed Abdallah, Christakis Christoforou
Poule E: Dick Jaspers, Dustin Jäschke, Robinson Morales
Poule F: Jung Han Heo, Mohamed Abdin, Yusuke Mori
Poule G: Sung-Won Choi, David Pennör, Hyun Min Seo
Poule H: Jae-Ho Cho, Riad Nady, Ruben Legazpi
Poule I: Murat Naci Coklu, Tonny Carlsen, Jose Juan Garcia
Poule J: Torbjörn Blomdahl, Pedro Piedrabuena, Radovan Hajek
Poule K: Sameh Sidhom, Anh Vu Duong, Alexander Salazar
Poule L: Quyet Chien Tran, Minh Cam Ma, Alessio D'Agata
Poule M: Dani Sánchez, Dong-Koong Kang, Pedro Gonzalez
Poule N: Nguyen Quoc Nguyen, Jérémy Bury, Harrie van de Ven
Poule O: Semih Sayginer, Eddy Leppens, Juan Patino
Poule P: Tayfun Tasdemir, Dinh Nai Ngo, Yasser Shehayeb.
Mr. Omar Samy, the tournament director in Cairo