NAREJOS - The full stands in the Spanish billiard arena cheered for Carlos Anguita, home player and the European champion from Valencia, who's is in the final four and still in the race for the world title. Gwendal Marechal from France, Beom Yeol Lee and Myung-Woo Cho from Korea are the other final players. The top favourite, Cho was not on his best on Saturday night in the run-up to the World's finals. The tension was felt on the second last match day, the averages went down, now that it's all about win or lose. The four players in the battle for gold make up for an exiting fight.
Beom-Yeol Lee, who makes his debut at a World championship, was the best winner against the Turk Arda Güngör with 35-29 in 29. Myung-Woo Cho finished in 32 innings against Tobias Bouerdick, Carlos Anguita in 35 against Cristian Sanchez and Gwendal Marechal in 37 against Mario Mercader. The 20-year-old Frenchman, from Lorient (Brittany), is close to a breakthrough among the juniors, after he took the European title under 17 in his own town.
The results lead to the following semi-finals on Sunday:
11.00: Anguita-Cho
13.00: Marechal-Lee.
Carlos Anguita and Myung-Woo Cho already showed in the first session of the knockouts that tactic and defensive playing are more important than in the pre-rounds. The Spaniard, who's living and training in the sports center where the championship is organized, is a real fighter, as he demonstrated at the last European championship in Brandenburg, where he beat the Frenchman Tachoire in the final.
The match that Anguita brought to the semi-finals, against Colombian Cristian Sanchez, was decided after 35 innings with 35-28. Myung-Woo Cho missed his glossy form he showed on the opening day when playing Tobias Bouerdick. The match sprang to live after 20 innings for Cho, then he finished the match 35-24 in 32.
Beom-Yeol Lee felt the threat of Arda Güngör after 28-14 in 20, when the Turk returned into the match with 7 and 3 to 32-25. Then he was countered by the Korean, who was the deserved winner: 35-29 in 29. Gwendal Marechal opposed a second Spaniard, who was still in the tournament. Mario Mercader went down in the tension and eventually was punished by the winning five from the Frenchman: 35-28 in 37.
The four winners in the quarter-finals were sent directly to the doping control. The IOC (International Olympic Committee) has asked the doping institute Wada to do more controls in billiards. The last doping check was done during the World championship 5 pins, last year in Milan. The expectation is that in billiards will be done three controls at least in the next year.
Group stages
Two Koreans, two Spaniards, one Frenchman, one German, one Turk and one Colombian survived the group stage and advanced for the final rounds with eight players. Most surprising after two days was Jung-Ju Shin's elimination. The Korean started the tournament not in a good shape (suffering a cold), but remained far below his high level. He was outplayed by Arda Güngör in the final and decisive group match.
Myung-Woo Cho came back to earth after the spectacular start with 25 in 6 innings. He continued with victories over Mario Mercader and Youssef Ossama, remained unbeaten and finished with the best average in the preliminaries (1.563). Mario Mercader claimed second place after wins over Mauro Salvador and Youssef Ossama, with his best match against Salvador in 20.
The final ranking in Group A:
1 Myung-Woo Cho 6-1.563-11
2 Mario Mercader 4-0.851-5
3 Mauro Salvador 2-0.636-5
4 Youssef Ossama 0-0.588-5
The second Korean, Beom-Yeol Lee, secured the group win against Carlos Anguita with a strong final part. The Spanish home player and European champion, Anguita, finished second without being in trouble against Joey de Kok and Brian Peralta. Group B was the best of four with the numbers one and two over one average.
The ranking in Group B:
1 Beom-Yeol Lee 6-1.271-11
2 Carlos Anguita 4-1.091-5
3 Joey de Kok 2-0.704-5
4 Brian Peralta 0-0.589-4
Gwendal Marechal was the more or less expected winner in Group C, the runner-up was Tobias Bouerdick, who didn't start so well, but took his chances against Japanese Shota Funaki. The German had a better control over his nerves and won 25-17. The best match in this group came from Gwendal Marechal, who bested Funaki in 17.
The final ranking in Group C:
1 Gwendal Marechal 6-1.027-6
2 Tobias Bouerdick 4-753-6
3 Shota Funaki 2-0.803-5
4 Caro Nelson 0-0.731-5
The final sprint of Turkish player Arda Güngor killed one of the contenders for the title, Jung-Ju Shin. The Korean lost his mind and his way in his last match with the Turk and lost 25-15 in 23. Cristian Sanchez was second due to his victory over Daniel Peña in his last match.
The ranking in Group fD:
1 Arda Güngör 4-0.829-7
2 Cristian Sanchez 4-0.904-5
3 Jung-Ju Shin 2-0.833-6
4 Daniel Peña 0-0.564-4.
Carlos Anguita, one of the favourites in his home arena
Myung-Woo Cho, in the race to another title
Beom-Yeol Lee, first World championship, one of the final four