EEKLO - In the Belgian city of Eeklo, the 1st Trophy of the Legends will be played this summer with players aged 65 and older. Raymond Ceulemans, Ludo Dielis and the Japanese Nobuaki Kobayashi are among the eight seeded players. The organization wants to start the preliminaries with a maximum of 100 players. The main prize is 2000 euros, the total prize package 10.300 euros. The Trophy of the Legends will feature an impressive line-up of former top players.
The main tournament with 16 players is from 21 to 24 June. The preliminaries are from 16-20 June. The tournament director is Leslie Menheer. In the preliminaries the matches are played to 30 points in groups of three players. In the main tournament, sixteen players compete against each other: eight seeded players, eight players from the qualifications. The sixteen players first are divided in four groups of four. The two best players in each group meet in the knock-out for the main prizes.
The Trophy of the Legends is named Memorial Aimé Immesoete to the president of the club in Eeklo who died some months ago.
The seeded players are Raymond Ceulemans (Belgium), Nobuaki Kobayashi (Japan), Ludo Dielis (Belgium), Rini van Bracht (the Netherlands), Richard Bitalis (France), Jose Maria Quetglas (Spain), Hans-Jürgen Kuhl (Germany) and Poul Bjerring (Denmark).
The playing room is in the Culture Center in Eeklo. The prizes are: 2000 euros for the winner, 1500 for the losing finalist, 1000 for the semi-finalists and then 500, 400 and 300 euros.
Registration for participation is 80 euros and has been opened. You can register via sport@trophyofthelegends.be