SEOUL - The Belgian top player Eddy Leppens may pack his bags after two matches, Glenn Hoffman is still in the race after a spectacular win against Dong Koong Kang, but the most remarkable in two days was the Greek tragedy in the arena of Seoul. The loss of Filipos Kasidokostas was followed in the last session by a shocking performance of Nikos Polychronopoulos. The third Greek, Kostas Papakonstantinou, didn't much better with losses against Ma and Blomdahl.
The billiard room holder from Athens, who has such a wonderful site where he helps players find their way to 1.200 on average, had a rotten day himself against the long Egyptian Mohsen Fouda. The despondent 'Poly', not a distant shadow of the beautiful, fast player in better days, was swept away by his opponent with hopeless scores: 21-7, 28-17 and 37-20. He was rarely over 0.500 in the match and could make it look a little better by a six-run in the equalizer (0.738).
The loss of Polychronopoulos almost certainly means that Jean Paul de Bruijn will show up in the last sixteen of the tournament. The Dutchman won 40-16 in 27 against Fouda yesterday and is virtually unattainable.
The blue Korean armada was not in its top form on the opening days of the tournament. Choong-Bok Lee was the best with 40 in 18 (2.222). Jung Han Heo won in 32 innings, Sung-Won Choi in 31 and Kyung-Roul Kim in 30. More painful was the loss of Dong Koong Kang, the only Korean who won a World Cup in his own country until now: 40-29 against Glenn Hoffman in 18.
Three other Koreans spoiled points: Jae Ho Cho with a draw against German champion Christodoulidis, Hyun Min Seo played a draw against Eddy Leppens and battles with Roland Forthomme for the group win. Chi-Yeon Cho lost twice and is out.
The stars of the second day were Frédéric Caudron (14 innings), Eddy Merckx (17), Dick Jaspers, Dani Sánchez and Glenn Hoffman (18) and Jérémy Bury (20).
The Spaniard finished strongly against Kouji Funaki, whom he knows well from his travels through Asia. The Japanese took a 19-8 lead in the match, but thanks to a run of 9 at 26-25 Super Dani won easily 40-26 in 18.
Eddy Merckx was one of the stars on the second day.
Mohsen Fouda had one of his glorious days with a win against Polychronopoulos.
The matches for the final day of qualifications:
12:00 pm (Korean time):
Caudron-Arai
Blomdahl-Ma
Jaspers-Aveiga
Kasidokostas-Piedrabuena
14.00:
Choi-Rodriguez
Merckx-Teran
Zanetti-Carlsen
Kim-Catano
16.00:
Kang-Legazpi
Cho-Diaz
Tasdemir-Sidhom
Sánchez-Rudolph
18.00:
Bury-Heo
Seo-Forthomme
Polychronopoulos-De Bruijn
Tran-Lee.