HO CHI MINH - The Korean player who looks like Harry Potter was the hero of Wednesday's prelims, with almost 3 average. A day later, Young Hoon Lee just about fell off the stage in Ho Chi Minh. Semih Sayginer showed him there is a difference between the established elite, and World Cup outsiders. Halfway through the match, the Korean had already been demoted to an extra, as the score board said 22-0. Semih took a while to finish, and turned the light in the arena down at 40-30 in 27. The last qualifying day in the Vietnamese capital was one of ups and downs. Jae Ho Cho, the Asian champion, started off with a 40 in 12 (3.333) and ended with 27 in 28 (0.964).
The two Belgians also had a strange day: Roland Forthomme got off the mark flawlessly against Do Nguyen (40-26 in 18) and could not get anywhere near in his second match against Jae-Guen Kim: 40-13 in 18 and 0.722. Eddy Leppens was unstoppable in his first showing against Ahn (40-24 in 15), stayed on a high level against Tonny Carlsen but he did squander a big lead (21-8) and got beaten 40-37 in 21. The seasoned Dane missed five times in his first six tries, but he finished well and won his group with 1.333, ahead of Leppens with 2.138.
It got even crazier. David Pennör, the Swedish champion, almost did a Houdini when he ran 10 against Lütfi Cenet who was leading him 39-29. Then he sprinted away from Birol Uymaz (23-3), only to be overtaken by the Turk fourteen zeroes later, to lose 40-30 in 29.
Myung-Woo Cho, young, short, brave, won his qualification in a crossfire hurricane. Just before Duc Minh Tran, another unknown but dangerous Vietnamese, could finish from 38-29, the young Korean stepped on the gas with a run of 10, and the match ended in a draw.
Two Vietnamese players, Dinh Nai Ngo and Anh Vu Duong, were on top of the day ranking ahead of Tayfun Tasdemir, David Martinez and Jae-Guen Kim. Myung-Woo Cho was last on the list of 12 winners. Duc Minh Tran, Eddy Leppens and Hyung Kon Kim tagged along as best runner-ups, Jae-Ho Cho (best match of the day with 40 in 12) and Roland Forthomme missed out on the main draw. Leppens had the highest average of the day (2.138) and Hyung Kon Kim (13) had the highest run.
Ranking of the final qualification day:
1 Dinh Nai Ngo (Vietnam) 4-1.951-7
2 Anh Vu Duong (Vietnam) 4-1.904-9
3 Tayfun Tasdemir 4-1.860-12
4 David Martinez 4-1.739-8
5 Jae-Guen Kim 4-1.666-8
6 Dong-Koong Kang 4-1.666-7
7 Birol Uymaz 4-1.600-11
8 Semih Sayginer 4-1.568-9
9 Jin Pyo Hong 4-1.568-6
10 Duc Anh Chien Nguyen 4-1.428-5
11 Tonny Carlsen 4-1.333-8
12 Myung-Woo Cho 3-1.666-10
The three runners-up who also qualify:
1 Duc Minh Tran 3-1.538-8
2 Eddy Leppens 2-2.138-10
3 Hyung Kon Kim 2-1.725-13.
The draw has put Frédéric Caudron together with the strong Korean Dong-Koong Kang, Eddy Merckx starts against David Martinez and Dick Jaspers against Hyung Kon Kim. Other interesting matches: Polychronopoulos-Tasdemir, Haeng Jik Kim-Myung-Woo Cho, Dani Sánchez-Birol Uymaz, Torbjörn Blomdahl-Tonny Carlsen and Jérémy Bury-Eddy Leppens.
The main draw:
1st session, 12.00 Korea, 7.00 Western Europe:
Frédéric Caudron-Dong-Koong Kang
Sung-Won Choi-Duc Minh Tran
Nikos Polychronopoulos-Tayfun Tasdemir
Sameh Sidhom-Robinson Morales
2nd session:
Jung-Han Heo-Duc Anh Chien Nguyen
Haeng-Jik Kim-Myung Woo Cho
Murat Naci Coklu-Quyet Chien Tran
Dick Jaspers-Hyung Kon Kim
3d session:
Marco Zanetti-Jin Pyo Hong
Nguyen Quoc Nguyen-Jae-Guen Kim
Dani Sánchez-Birol Uymaz
Anh Vu Duong-Semih Sayginer
4th session:
Torbjörn Blomdahl-Tonny Carlsen
Dinh Nai Ngo-Minh Cam Ma
Jérémy Bury-Eddy Leppens
Eddy Merckx-David Martinez.
Eddy Leppens, best average, in the main draw as second best runner-up
Jae-Ho Cho, out of the World Cup despite the best match of the day
Myung-Woo Cho in the best 32 after a strong finish