NEW YORK - The marathon of qualifications at the Carom Café in New York ended with a miracle match by Dion Nelin on Wednesday evening. The Danish whirlwind, at the age of 42 now, once silver medal winner in a World championship three cushion in his own country behind Marco Zanetti (2002), took the spotlights in the famous billiard arena with a 25 points match in 3 innings in a stunning speed show: 12.30 minutes. The opponent was 36-year-old American Christian Portilla, who scored one point (!). Nelin's score: 12-2-11, good for 8,333 on average. The absolute highlight of three days preliminary rounds !!!!
The second round, in which the four seeded players Dani Sánchez, Torbjörn Blomdahl, Eddy Merckx and Semih Sayginer enter the tournament, will be started today, Thursday, with four groups of ten players, of which the numbers 1 and 2 qualify for the final round. The unbeaten group winners in the first session of 294 games were Dion Nelin (1,829, series 16), Myung-Woo Cho (1,744), Hugo Patiño (1,562), Roland Forthomme (1,441, Jun-Tae Kim (1,415), Sameh Sidhom ( 1,376), Arnim Kahofer (1,304), Adrien Tachoire (1,260), Chang-Hoon Seo (1,145), Thi Pham (1,102), Michael Kang (1,034).
William Oh (1.339), Miguel Torres (1.139) and Young Gull Lee (1.067) were the group winners with 10 match points.
The groups fort he second round:
Poule A: Sayginer, M.W. Cho, Tachoire, M. Torres, W. Oh, Broeders, Park, Peña, D.U. Oh, Kwon.
Poule B: Merckx, Nelin, Kahofer, Pham, Y.G. Lee, Kogelbauer, K. Lee, Mortensen, Diab, Olesen.
Poule C: Blomdahl, Forthomme, Patiño, J.T. Kim, Kostistansky, Johansen, Villegas, Knudsen, Petersen, S.J. Lee.
Poule D: Sánchez, Sidhom, Kang, Seo, T.K. Lee, Jeong, Van Luu, Reina, Groot, Dömer.
The pre-round results (14 groups of 7 players)
Poule A:
1 Kahofer 12-1.304-13
2 Lee 10-1.100-6
3 Siedentopf 6-0.691-6
4 Yoon 6-0.634-4
5 Van Geyt6-0.588-4
6 Geist 4-0.576-6
7 Sabogal 0-0.416-4
Poule B:
1 Seo 12-1.145-9
2 Petersen 8-0.790-7
3 Reina 8-0.752-6
4 Lim 6-0.773-7
5 Watson 4-0.638-7
6 Castillo 4-0.624-4
7 Bengtsson 0-0.447-5
Poule C:
1 Kim 12-1.415-11
2 Villegas 8-1.336-8
3 Nishimoto 8-0.924-7
4 Kwon 8-0.914-5
5 Lee 4-0.803-6
6 Klingberg 2-0.476-5
7 Yim 0-0.496-5
Poule D:
1 Patiño 12-1.562-12
2 Knudsen 8-1.193-8
3 Dömer 8-1.128-7
4 Jensen 6-0.946-10
5 Choi 4-0.911-4
6 Olesen 4-0.712-7
7 Vassi 0-0.523-5
Poule E:
1 Kang 12-1.034-7
2 Broeders 8-1.099-8
3 Dauphin 6-0.658-5
4 Acevedo 6-0.587-4
5 Olsen 4-0.654-5
6 Kokmaz 2-0.648-5
7 Erhardt 0-0.330-3
Poule F:
1 Oh W. 10-1.339-8
2 Groot 8-1.100-12
3 Mortensen 8-0.832-7
4 Tejada 6-0.911-6
5 Molina 4-0.731-7
6 Ramirez 4-0.629-8
7 Flores 2-0.618-7
Poule G:
1 Nelin 12-1.829-16
2 Kogelbauer 10-0.786-10
3 Carrasco 6-0.756-8
4 Portilla 6-0.649-7
5 Wallace 400.716-7
6 Tilaverides 4-0.540-5
7 Kim 0-0.483-7
Poule H:
1 Cho 12-1.744-7
2 Peña 8-1.093-8
3 Sudar 8-0.77-10
4 Lee 6-0.733-6
5 Cetin 4-0.812-7
6 Skupin 4-0.605-6
7 Elkhouly 0-0.370-3
Poule I
1 Thi Pham 12-1.102-7
2 Park 10-0.950-8
3 Korte 8-0.911-8
4 Sakai 4-0.773-7
5 Rodriguez 4-0.697-5
6 Yong 4-0.661-5
7 Loc 0-0.484-3
Poule J:
1 Torres 10-1.139-7
2 Kostistanski 10-1.108-8
3 Oh D.W. 8-0.805-6
4 Torres C 6-0.840-11
5 Nebuda 6-0.711-7
6 Spruzina 2-0.366-4
7 Jaramillo 0-0.365-2
Poule K:
1 Tachoire 12-1.260-7
2 Jeong 10-1.193-8
3 Bello 8-0.666-5
4 Han 6-0.726-6
5 Raskin 4-0.473-6
6 Aredo 2-0.425-4
7 Hwang 0-0.479-6
Poule L:
1 Sidhom 12-1.376-8
2 Luu 8-0.922-8
3 Karam 6-0.706-5
4 Tullberg 6-0.482-6
5 Flores 4-0.517-5
6 Shin 4-0.516-4
7 Giordano 2-0.406-5
Poule M:
1 Lee Y.G. 10-1.067-5
2 Johansen 10-0.792-6
3 Lizarazo 8-1.072-6
4 Diab 8-0.925-6
5 Wienke 4-0.480-5
6 Madsen 2-0.524-4
7 Jeppson 0-0.383-3
Poule N:
1 Forthomme 12-1.415-13
2 Lee K. 10-1.006-8
3 Buttner 6-0.723-5
4 Magraby 6-0.647-6
5 Jetten 6-0.637-8
6 Eckel 2-0.382-4
7 Mora 0-0.334-4.
Two qualifiers in one image: Hugo Patiño and Brian Knudsen
William Oh and Michael Kang, both qualified for the next round