SEOUL - On his fiftieth birthday, Eddy Merckx, triple winner this summer, ranked among the best and first eight winners at the LGU+ Cup in Seoul. Torbjörn Blomdahl tops the ranking ahead of Merckx and Caudron, six of seven Europeans started with a win, only Dick Jaspers was defeated by strong Korean Hyun Min Seo. The two Korean winners were Jae-Ho Cho and Hyun Min Seo. Four groups of four compete at the LGU Cup (total prize amount of 160.000 dollar) in one of the upstairs rooms of the Hilton hotel this week for eight places in the knockout phase.
Eddy Merckx is one of the over fifty guys now in the top twelve following Zanetti (56), Blomdahl (55), Jaspers (53) and Caudron (50). Of those five, the Swede was the best starter on the opening day with a smooth victory over Hyung-Kon Kim (40-23, 17 innings, 2.353 of average) scoring the best day run (11) of the entire field. Eddy Merckx and Frédéric Caudron reached the finish in 19 innings, Caudron with a big lead over Jae Guen Kim (40-20), Merckx after a tough fight with Sung-Ok Oh, whom he never met before in his career. ,,But what a great match did he put down'', said Merckx, speaking about the wildcard holder with a blank palmares. The spectacled Korean remained close to his famous opponent until the final sprint, in which he was beaten 40-38.
Torbjörn Blomdahl and Murat Naci Coklu lead Group A after victories over Hyun-Kon Kim and Dong-Koong Kang, the former winner of the LGU Cup, who was overpowered by Coklu 40-31. In Group B, Jae-Ho Cho and Dani Sánchez took the lead. The Spaniard defeated HaengJik Kim 40-36, Jae-Ho Cho won the Korean clash with Myung Woo Cho 40-32 (averages 2.000 and 1.600).
Marco Zanetti, the defending champion and Eddy Merckx are on top in Group C, Zanetti after a moderate, but successful start against Quyet Chien Tran 40-33. Frédéric Caudron and Hyun Min Seo, after his surprising start against Jaspers, top Group D with averages of 2.100 and 2.000.
The flights after one session:
Group A:
1 Torbjörn Blomdahl 2-2.353-11
2 Murat Naci Coklu 2-1.739-10
3 Hyun-Kon Kim 0-1.353-6
4 Dong-Koong Kang 0-1.348-6
Group B:
1 Jae-Ho Cho 2-2,000-7
2 Dani Sánchez 2-1.379-9
3 Myung Woo Cho 0-1.600-6
4 HaengJik Kim 0-1.241-6
Group C:
1 Eddy Merckx 2-2.105-6
2 Marco Zanetti 2-1.212-6
3 Sung-Uk Oh 0-2,000-10
4 Quyet Chien Tran 0-1,000-5
Group D:
1 Frédéric Caudron 2-2.105-6
2 Hyun Min Seo 2-2.000-9
3 Dick Jaspers 0-1.750-5
4 Jae-Guen Kim 0-1.053-4.
Matches for the second day (Wednesday), Korean time, seven hours compared to Western Europe:
14.00: Dani-Sánchez-Jae-Ho Cho, HaengJik Kim-Myung-Woo Cho
16.00: Marco Zanetti-Sung-Uk Oh, Quyet Chien Tran-Eddy Merckx
18.00: Hyun Min Seo-Frédéric Caudron, Dick Jaspers-Jae-Guen Kim
20.00: Dong-Koong Kang-Torbjörn Blomdahl, Murat Naci Coklu-Hyung-Kon Kim.
Torbjörn Blomdahl was the best starter on the opening day
Eddy Merckx in the top three on the day he turned fifty
Title defender Marco Zanetti among the first-day-winners in LGU Cup