Worldchampionship National TeamsViersen (Germany)

Belgians were almost the sensation at World championship in Viersen

03/09/2023

Published by frits bakker

Belgian player Wesley de Jaeger missed his last chance for qualification with his team

VIERSEN - The sensation was so close when the Belgian team had a last chance to qualify at the expense of strong Vietnam on this Friday evening at the World championship for nation teams in Viersen. Peter De Backer, who had already beaten Blomdahl, pulled off another trick against famous world player Quyet Chien Tran. The fate of the Belgians, which played without Eddy Merckx, was in the hands of Wesley de Jaeger then. The second Belgian Peter De Backer had to draw against Duc Anh Chien Nguyen. He came back from 37-27 down to 37-35, but in the sizzling tension, De Jaeger went through the clock in the last inning. Doing so, he offered his opponent the break shot to finish the match. And in the equalizer, De Jaeger, who had to score five times, missed on three points from 40-40 and the qualification. The Belgians were eliminated, the Vietnamese, along with group winner Sweden and with a touch of luck, go to the top eight of the tournament.

The other group that closed the preliminaries on this Friday evening saw Spain and the Netherlands, with Dick Jaspers excelling, finish as the numbers one and two. Tomorrow, two more groups play for four places in the final round with eight teams. In Group A, the Turks and the Greeks are the big contenders to move on, while in Group B it is between Mexico, Germany and South Korea for two places.

The overview of the groups:

Group A:

It looks to be a battle, this Saturday, between the Turks and the Greeks in Group A, after the match between these two teams ended in a draw: 1-1. The Turks first won their opening match against USA, Greece played a draw against Japan in its first match. For Turkey, Tayfun Tasdemir won against Greece his match with Kostas Antonatos 40-22 in 27, but Nikos Polychronopoulos drew the match by beating Semih Sayginer 40-29 in 17 innings.

That moved Turkey into the lead in the ranking after two rounds with 3 match points and 6 match points and Greece on 2 match points and 4 match points. In the other match, USA won over Japan 3-1 in match points as Carlos Mario Villegas beat Japan's Miyashita 40-35 in 43 and Hugo Patino drew against Ryuuji Umeda in 40 innings. The Turks still play against Japan on Saturday at 13.30, Greece against USA for the final standings.

The standings after 2 rounds in Group A:

1 Turkey 2-3-1,670-16

2 Greece 2-2-1.329-7

3 USA 2-2-0.870-6

4 Japan 2-1-1.014-7.

Group B:

South Korea's poor start, losing against Mexico, was more or less brushed away by the Asian favorite in the match against Egypt. Haeng Jik Kim and Jung Han Heo took revenge and kept the chances open by winning vs Egypt 2-0. The top form was not there yet, but Haeng Jik Kim was boss over Sameh Sidhom 40-33 in 24 (both run a 10) and Jung Han Heo beat Riad Nady 40-20 in 27.

At the other table, the surprising Mexicans played a draw against Germany thanks to a very generous win by Javier Vera against Cengiz Karaca 40-6 in 20 innings. The German did not go beyond a top run of 2 with 16 zeros in 20 innings, Vera scored an 11 and remained unbeaten in his two matches after the first win against Jung Han Heo. Martin Horn, the German leader, beat Hernandez 40-29 in 25.

South Korea still plays for the qualification against Germany, Saturday at 11am. Mexico plays against Egypt, which is already eliminated.

The standings in Group B:

1 Mexico 2-3-1,475-11

2 Germany 2-3-1,312-12

3 South Korea 2-2-1,420-10

4 Egypt 2-0-1,088-10

Group C:

The Spaniards, having the same 3 match points as the Netherlands out of two matches, quickly made it clear that they had nothing to fear from Jordan. The crucial match was actually the match between the Netherlands and Spain, which ended in 1-1 and in which Dick Jaspers shone with a run of 20 against Dani Sánchez, whom he outplayed 40-14 in 13 innings, but Sánchez was able to narrow the gap slightly with an equalizer of 11: 40-25. Ruben Legazpi won the other match against Jean Paul de Bruijn 40-24 in 25. The final score (Netherlands and Spain qualified) was theoretically known by then, but the Spaniards won comfortable against Jordan: Sánchez vs Abu Tayeh 40-30 in 29, Legazpi vs Awwad 40-16 in 24.

The Netherlands unexpectedly had big difficulties with France and still crawled through the eye of the needle. Dick Jaspers was trailing all game against Mikael Devogelaere, but showed his resilience and high class in the last inning, in which he went from 35-32 down with a run of eight through the finish. Devogelaere went from 40-35 to 40-36 (25 innings) in the equalizing inning. The other Frenchman, Jérôme Barbeillon, won against Jean Paul de Bruijn 40-35 in 32 innings.

The final standings in Group C:

1 Spain 3-5-1,520-11

2 Netherlands 3-4-1,479-20

3 France 3-2-1,226-9

4 Jordan 3-1-0.817-14

Group D:

What a thrill was in the air when the Belgians, starting as the outsiders in this group with Sweden and Vietnam, came so close to qualifying in the final matches. They needed to win in the match with Vietnam 4-0 or 3-1 in matches, which would see them finish second behind Sweden. Peter De Backer already did the almost impossible by beating Quyet Chien Tran (40-30 in 18, 2.222 on average), the other world player, after Torbjörn Blomdahl in his first match (40-39). The Belgian number two, Wesley de Jaeger, was looking at a 36-24 deficit at that point, but fought his way back to two points after Nguyen (37-35) in the very defensive final leg. When the nerves were on top for the two actors, the score was 38-35, then 39-35, then, when De Jaeger had gone through the clock 40-35. The Belgian had one more inning in the equalize, had to score 5 times, but missed his third carom.

The Swedish record team, which had played a draw against Belgium and won against Vietnam, then also triumphed against Austria and finished as group winners with 5 match points. Michael Nilsson's performance deserves the beauty prize. The second man behind Torbjörn Blomdahl won all his three matches against Nguyen, De Jaeger and Maurer.

The standings in Group D:

1 Sweden 3-5-1,493-9

2 Vietnam 3-3-1,409-17

3 Belgium 3-3-1,087-7

4 Austria 3-1-1.078-8.