SEOUL - The UMB (world's federation) has announced the sixteen seeded players plus the reigning champion (Frédéric Caudron) to top the list of 48 participants for the World championship three cushion in Seoul. The composition of the players list is done according to the new regulations: the number of seeded players is reduced from 22 to seventeen.
The tournament is from 26 to 30th November.
The UMB has composed the list of seventeen seeded players, supplemented by 13 CEB players (Europe), 8 from CPB (America), 6 from ACBC (Asia) and 2 from ACC (Africa). Two wildcards are handed out by the organization: Jung Han Heo and Hyun Min Seo, both from South Korea.
The tournament will be played at the Gymnastics House (Jamsil Stadium) in Seoul. The players training is on Wednesday 26 November. The tournament director is Mr. Sung Hyuk Lee. The opening ceremony on Wednesday, Korean time 13.00.
Sixteen groups of three players meet in matches to 40 points with equal innings. One player of each group qualifies for the knockout stage, in which matches could be decided (after a draw) by penalty shots.
The prize money for the top four:
Winner 4800 euros, number two 3200, numbers three and four 1600.
UMB president Jean Claude Dupont explained the rules for seeded players after the announcement:
,,The decision we made, from 22 seeded players (21 plus the world champion) to 17 (16 plus the world), we took in our board meeting in Antwerp, October last year. The rules change was announced shortly thereafter. The reason was that we wanted to give access to the World championship for players from countries as much as possible (the request of many federations), in order to better meet the Olympic Committee's criteria.''
,,An additional reason is that we wanted to reduce the 'historical' (BWA) list of seeded players. In no other sport forty percent of the participants in a World championship are seeded on the basis of ranking. We now give more places to confederations and they determine the criteria to participate for their representatives.''
,,We had to use 'ranking 19', because this ranking is drawn one hour after the World championship in Guri. The next day (at 12.00 am) we had to publish the invitation for this World championship.''
The seventeen top ranked players:
1 Frédéric Caudron, 2 Torbjörn Blomdahl, 3 Dick Jaspers, 4 Filipos Kasidokostas, 5 Sung-Won Choi, 6 Eddy Merckx, 7 Marco Zanetti, 8 Kyung-Roul Kim, 9 Dong Koong Kang, 10 Jae Ho Cho, 11 Tayfun Tasdemir 12 Dani Sánchez, 13 Jérémy Bury, 14 Roland Forthomme 15 Nikos Polychronopoulos, 16 Quyet Chien Tran, 17, Choong-Bok Lee.
The CEB players are Christian Rudolph (Ger), Jean Paul de Bruijn (Neth), Tolgahan Kiraz (Tur), Jérôme Barbeillon (Fra), Martin Bohac (Cze), Tonny Carlsen (Den), Eddy Leppens (Bel), Ruben Legazpi (Spa), Arnim Kahover (Aus), Cetin Behzat (Swi), Michael Nilsson (Swe), Kostas Papakonstantinou (Gri), Christos Christodoulidis (Ger).
From America: Henry Diaz (Col), Huberney Catano (Col), Pedro Piedrabuena (USA), Ramon Rodriguez (Peru), Guido Sacco (Peru), Javier Teran (Ecu), Luis Aveiga (Ecu), Juan Pablo Sisterna (Arg ).
From Asia: Tatsuo Arai (Japan), Kouji Funaki (Jap), Nguyen Quoc Nguyen (Viet), Xuan Cuong Ma (Viet), Chi Yeon Cho (Kor), Antoine Gholam (Lb).
From Africa: Sameh Sidhom (Egy), Mohsen Fouda (Egy).
Wildcards: Jung Han Heo (Kor), Hyun Min Seo (Kor).
Group formats:
Group A: Caudron, Arai, Barbeillon
Group B: Blomdahl, Papakonstantionou, Ma
Group C: Jaspers, Kahofer, Aveiga
Group D: Kasidokostas, Piedrabuena, Kiraz
Group E: Choi, Rodriguez, Gholam
Group F: Merckx, Teran, Sacco
Group G: Zanetti, Nguyen, Carlsen
Group H: Kim, Catano, Bohac
Group I: Kang, Legazpi, Nilsson
Group J: Cho, Diaz, Christodoulidis
Group K: Tasdemir, Sidhom, Chi Yeon Cho
Group L: Sánchez, Rudolph, Funaki
Group M: Bury, Heo, Behzat
Group N: Forthomme Leppens, Seo
Group O: Polychronopoulos, De Bruijn, Fouda
Group P: Tran, Lee, Sisterna.
