Sung Won Choi's magic year is over

BORDEAUX - The giant screen in the arena showed Sung Won Choi's big moment one more time. The shriek of joy, the Korean flag, the emotion when he realized he had won the WC . Sung Won Choi had a year to enjoy it, now it's over. The writing had been on the wall: after a year of intense personal attention and publicity in his home country, he had performed too inconsistently to be a contender in tournaments.

He lost his place in the top-3 on the ranking, and must now fear to drop out of the top-12, after his early exit in Bordeaux. His last ditch effort against Japanese Tatsuo Arai was good, but not good enough. Jae Guen Kim, the other Korean in Choi's flight and his Nemesis, also beat Arai and advanced to the main draw.

The magic year of Sung Won Choi is over, the hunt for the world title can begin. Torbjörn Blomdahl was the first to make sure of a spot in the K.O.stage, by beating Egyptian Ihab El Messery (40-13 in 20). He looked ahead and did it with remarkable modesty: ,,It has been so long since I won a world title, for now I don't have any expectations.''

Dick Jaspers was also calm and collected after his two victories, one over Hyung Kon Kim and today over Ryuuji Umeda (40-32 in 20, two runs of ten). "The Dutch are down to earth', he said in front of the Kozoom camera's. ,,The WC is a dream, of course. But I am going to remain grounded.''

Eddy Merckx (against Luis Aveiga) and Jae Guen Kim (against Tatsuo Arai) won their matches in 23 innings.

Torbjörn Blomdahl

Dick Jaspers

Eddy Merckx

Luis Aveiga

Ihab El Messery