3-Cushion
SEOUL – Dong Koong Kang, nicknamed The Hulk because of his imposing appearance, is one of the multi-winners at the billiards in de PBA arenas The Korean giant sealed victory in the Crown Haitai event, beating in the final Murat Naci Coklu (4-3). That puts Kang in first place after four PBA events so far this season, of which he won two and finished second once. Murat Naci Coklu grabbed next to his second win in the decisive set at 3-3, which the Turk lost 11-0.
Dong Koong Kang, once runner-up at a World championship n his UMB era in a final with Torbjörn Blomdahl in Bordeaux, already earned 236 million Korean won, about 165,000 euros, this season. In total during his PBA period, Kang now gathered 420,000 euros. Jae-ho Cho is the leader in that ranking with 580,000 euros ahead of David Zapata and David Martinez.
Kang won in the final over four sets wins, which went back and forth, 15-3, 13-15, 15-6, 8-15, 14-15, 15-13 and 11-0. In the semi-finals, the Korean overcame Semih Sayginer 4-0, Murat Naci Coklu got the better of Vietnamese Minh Cam Ma 4-3. In the quarter-finals, Kang beat another known Korean, Jae-guen Kim 3-2, Coklu won vs David Martinez 3-2, Minh Cam Ma vs Ki-ho Park 3-1 and Sayginer vs Phuong Linh Nguyen 3-2. Well-known players who went out of the tournament in earlier rounds were Capak and Kasidokostas in the last 32 and Bulut, Hashas, Yüksel, Sung won Choi, Zapata, Leppens, Montes and Palazon in the best 64.
Ga-young Kim, the ladies' star, was the winner of the LPBA final against Ji-eun Han. For Kim, it was her 9th win in 14 finals.
Dong Koong Kang showes his 'Hulk' imitation at PBA's ceremony
Dong Koong, lifting the trophy for the second time in this season
Murat Naci Coklu, the runner-up after his lost final to Kang