VEGHEL - The opening day at the World Cup is traditionally a day of getting used to the new tables, improvising with the arena and shuffling with players in the first preliminaries. And so it was this day, Sunday, in the third consecutive World Cup in Veghel, where the first 16 groups with 16 winners opened the gala. German Turk Murat Gökmen was the best in match points and average on this first day with 1.363, five of 10 Dutch came through the first shifts on the World Cup podium, with five Germans and five French. The three Belgians were eliminated. 17-year-old Frenchman Tangui Duriez was the youngest player to survive the first rounds.
The organizer BEN, Biljart Evenementen Nederland, had to deal with a half-hour delay because the lighting in the second arena was not optimal. Harry Mathijssen: ''We fixed that quickly.'' There were not yet full stands on the first day, no extremely high averages, but there was keen competition, for every ball and for every win with a place in the next round as the reward.
Roland Uijtdewillegen, one of the 24 Dutchmen, was unfortunately not in this field. He had to cancel first, was fortunately able to join later, returned to the schedule, but had to stay home again due to a miss of communication. ''But despite of that, it was a wonderful first day,'' Harry Mathijssen concluded in the later evening hours.
Sporting success came most of all from double winners such as Murat Gökmen (1,363), Yavuz Gungordu (1,176), Kai de Zwart (1,090), Simon Blondeel (1,034), Cédric Melnytscchenko (1,034), Norbert Roestel (1. 034), Pierre Soumagne (1.016), Joris van 't Zelfden (0.937) and the best runner-up, Vagelis Moulos, who did have the best average of all players to his name with one loss: 1.375. The second number two allowed to join, due to the cancellation of two players was Marcel Back with 1.159 average.
The 48-year-old Murat Gökmen started his mission with a win against his compatriot Jorg Waldhoff 30-9 in 25. And after Frans van Schaik had beaten the same Waldhoff 30-14 in 31, the clash between Gökmen and Van Schaik was a one-way match. The German raced over his opponent to 30-16 in 19 innings with some suppleness and some luck and had himself crowned the day's best winner with 4 match points and 1,363.
Joris van 't Zelfden, the 19-year-old Dutch junior champion, started the World Cup superbly with wins over Frenchman Patrick Pinard and German Marcel Back. The Zeeland promise started against the Frenchman with a win in 43 innings, against whom the German had won in 23 innings. However, the third and decisive battle was dominated by Joris van 't Zelfden, who started 3, 1 and 8, with 14-10 in 9 and finished nicely after 25-18 at 30-21 in 22 innings.
The day rankings on the first day:
1 Murat Gökmen (Duitsland) 4-1.373-7
2 Yavuz Gungordu (Turkije) 4-1.176-7
3 Kay de Zwart (Nederland) 4-1.090-7
4 Cédric Melnytschenko (Frankrijk)
4-1.034-5
5 Simon Blondeel (Duitsland) 4-1.034-5
6 Norbert Roestel (Duitsland) 4-1.034-5
7 Pierre Soumagne (Frankrijk) 4-1.016-7
8 Wilco van Wijk (Nederland) 4-0.983-6
9 Ramazan Durdu (Duitsland) 4-0.952-9
10 Sander Jonen (Nederland) 4-0.952-5
11 Joris van 't Zelfden (Nederland) 4-0.937-8
12. Martin Witt (Duitsland) 4-0.882-6
13 Fabricio Puigvert (Frankrijk) 4-0.869-7
14 Maxime Panaia 4-0.810-4
15 Menno de Vries (Nederland) 4-0.731-4
16 Tangui Duriez (Frankrijk) 4-0.652-5
The groups for the second day on Monday:
Poule A: Tangui Duriez, Tolgahan Kiraz, Eric De Busser
Poule B: Volkan Cetin, Menno de Vries, Alain Saeijs
Poule C: Maxime Panaia, Olivier Jacquemond, Jan Ales
Poule D: Jean van Erp, Fabrice Puigvert, Mario Mercader
Poule E: Sam van Etten, Hakan Celik, Martin Witt
Poule F: Jef Philipoom, Joris van 't Zelfden, Jérôme Barbeillon
Poule G: Thomas Andersen, Sander Jonen, Vangelis Moulos
Poule H: Jean Reverchon, Ramazan Durdu, Therese Klompenhouwer
Poule I: Ronny Brants, Wilco van Wijk, Abbas Naanouh
Poule J: Dong Ryong Kim, Pierre Soumagne, Raymon Groot
Poule K: Huub Wilkowski, Simon Blondeel, Mikael Devogelaere
Poule L: Gurhan Kabak, Norbert Roestel, Phuong Vinh Bao
Poule M: Hyuk Son Jun, Cédric Melnytschenko, Marcel Back
Poule N: Francis Forton, Kay de Zwart, David Pennör
Poule O: Dave Christiani, Joey de Kok, Yavuz Gungordu
Poule P: Raymund Swertz, Wesley de Jaeger, Murat Gökmen.
Kay de Zwart
Joris van 't Zelfden
Sander Jonen, the two times world champion in artistic
Tangui Duriez
Wilco van Wijk