WONJU - The organizers of the World 3-cushion Grand Prix in Wonju, with 48 of the world's best players, faced a nasty incident in the late evening on Saturday. Two Korean players, who played against each other in the final rounds of the first qualifiers, stepped out of the tournament after that match. According to first reports from Korea, there were rumors about match-fixing, as both players were qualified for the next round due to the draw they played. That was later contradicted by the organization.
Chang Hoon Seo (number 29 in the world rankings) and Jung Hee Lee played in Group B, where a third Korean, Jin Youl Kim, had quit earlier due to the death of his mother. Seo and Lee both had a chance to qualify if they played a draw in the last game. They did so with set scores 7-7, 12-8 and 5-14, both with around 1 on average.
The organization later stated in a point of view: ''There was no match-fixing in that game. The sports management made a mistake: the Koreans should have played against each other in the first rounds. However that was not so easy because so many Koreans are in this event. Now, there were a lot of complaints from the Europeans. The Korean players were angry about that and didn't want to continue and play in the next round.''
The organization designated Portuguese Jose Miguel Soares and Japanese Miyashita as substitutes for the next round. The organization further stated: ''Mister Lee had been sick for a few days and lost to the Vietnamese lady as a result. Otherwise, he would already been qualified. And Seo felt so bad about the situation that he didn't want to play anymore.''
The adjusted group layouts (the first two from each group and the four best third advance to the stage with the top 16):
The new groups:
Group A:
Dick Jaspers
Sameh Sidhom
Sung Won Choi
Jose Maria Soares
Wan Young Choi
Group B:
Quyet Chien Tran
Myeong Jong Cha
Dion Nelin
Huberney Catano
Bong Joo Hwang
Group C:
Haeng Jik Kim
Torbjörn Blomdahl
Pedro Piedrabuena
TTT Nguyen
Ruben Legazpi
Group D:
Marco Zanetti
Eddy Merckx
Choong Bok Lee
Duc Anh Chien Nguyen
Pedro Gonzalez
Group E:
Tayfun Tasdemir
Jung Han Heo
Murat Naci Coklu
Jun Tae Kim
Sam van Etten
Group F:
Dani Sánchez
Nikos Polychronopoulos
Hyung Kon Kim
Takao Miyashita
Su Yeong Park
The matches in these six groups are played today, Sunday, and Monday.