ANDERNOS - The European billiards federation CEB and Kozoom Group are preparing for the start and the first pre-rounds of the Kozoom 3-Cushion Challenge Cup. For the tournament, whose finals will be played in the summer (15, 16, 17, 18 July), 16 top ranked European players are invited, the European (and world) ladies champion, the European champion under 21 and six wild card players. The group stage, in the new Kozoom studios in Andernos for a total of 28 days of competition broadcast in the highest quality production, starts from Monday 1 to Wednesday 3 February.
The last of 8 qualifying rounds is from 15 to 17 June. The playing format in the eight groups of three players is:
Qualification groups with three players against each other to 18 sets of ten caroms (6 sets per day). The final is played with 8 players, the winners of the groups: double knock-out, head-to-head matches to four sets of 7 caroms won.
Each session starts at 17.00, the shot clock is set at 40 seconds with 1 time-out per set for each player, with no equalizing inning. The qualification for the final round is determined by the sets won and the overall average.
The three players in each group of the preliminary rounds play against each other on one match table over three days. In case of a tie between two or three players (6-6-6, 4-7-7 or 2-8-8 in set score), a final, deciding set is played between two or three players.
The participating players are:
1 Dick Jaspers (Netherlands)
2 Marco Zanetti (Italy)
3 Dani Sánchez (Spain)
4 Martin Horn (Germany)
5 Murat Naci Coklu (Turkey)
6 Semih Sayginer (Turkey)
7 Torbjörn Blomdahl (Sweden)
8 Eddy Merckx (Belgium)
9 Tayfun Tasdemir (Turkey)
10 Lütfi Cenet (Turkey)
11 Jérémy Bury (France)
12 Dion Nelin (Denmark)
13 Nikos Polychronopoulos (Greece)
14 Antonio Montes (Spain)
15 Rubén Legazpi (Spain)
16 Peter Ceulemans (Belgium)
Three CEB wildcards:
17 Rui Manuel Costa (Portugal)
18 Arnim Kahofer (Austria)
19 Martin Bohac (Czech Republic)
Three Kozoom wildcards:
20 Roland Forthomme (Belgium)
21 Jérôme Barbeillon (France)
22 Gwendal Maréchal (France)
23 Therese Klompenhouwer (The Netherlands, European champion ladies)
24 Maxime Panaia (France, European champion under 21).
The group format and the match days in the preliminary rounds:
Group D (February 1-3: Martin Horn, Nikos Polychronopoulos, Roland Forthomme
Group C (February 9-11): Dani Sánchez, Martin Bohac, Rubén Legazpi
Group G (23-25 February): Torbjörn Blomdahl, Lütfi Cenet, Gwendal Maréchal
Group E (March 1-3): Murat Naci Coklu, Dion Nelin, Jérôme Barbeillon
Group A (March 16-18): Dick Jaspers, Peter Ceulemans, Rui Costa
Group H (March 30-April 1): Eddy Merckx, Tayfun Tasdemir, Maxime Panaia
Group F (May 11-13): Semih Sayginer, Jérémy Bury, Therese Klompenhouwer
Group B (June 15-17): Marco Zanetti, Antonio Montes, Arnim Kahofer.
The CEB sports director on behalf of CEB is Stefano Malacrita from Rome, Italy. Mr. Malacrita commented: ''Under these difficult circumstances, we worked very hard and with big motivation, developing new projects for the sport of billiard together with our partners. With this new competition, we want to give a better impulse to the restart of sport activities in a safe environment, hoping that with vaccines, we are finally getting closer to the end of this awful period. We also want to take this opportunity to experiment new formats that can be enjoyed both by players and spectators.''
CEB sports director Stefano Malacrita: a better impulse to the restart of our sports activities
The prize money:
Winner 12,000 euros
Runner-up: 8,000 euros
3-4: 5,000 euros
5-6: 3,000 euros
7-8: 2,000 euros
Nrs. 2 preliminary rounds: 1,000 euros
Nrs. 3 preliminary rounds: 500 euros.
Guarantees each player: 500 euros
Players who reach the final phase: 500 euros.
