World Survival to final stage before the final rounds

SEOUL – Korean super talent Myung Woo Cho is the most famous player who was eliminated on Friday for the final round with the best 16 in the World 3 cushion Survival. Twenty of 24 players are left, with eight players still in action today for the last four places. They will join the 12 players who got through the first qualifiers to enter the semi-finals tomorrow.

Dick Jaspers was the best in the Survival scoring on the first day with six groups of four players. The Dutchman finished in his group with 118 points ahead of Martin Horn with 50. Sameh Sidhom was group winner with 109 points ahead of Wan Young Choi with 68. Haeng Jik Kim finished in his group with 105 points ahead of Ye-Sung Jeong with 69. Chi Yeon Cho was the fourth player with a score over 100: he was winner with 102 ahead of Torbjörn Blomdahl with 54. The two other group winners were Ruben Legazpi with 90 points ahead of Marco Zanetti with 62 and Van Ly Dao with 78 ahead of Tayfun Tasdemir with 70.

Those 12 winners and Numbers 2 from the first groups went straight to the semi-finals, which will be played on Saturday with a total of 16 players.

On Friday, the numbers 3 and 4 of the first day started in a first shuffle. Twelve players came out in three groups, the winners, the numbers 2 and the top two nrs. 3 went on to another round with eight players. These were, in order of points:

1. Quyet Chien Tran 142
2. Jung Han Heo 122
3. Jun Tae Kim 104
4. Myeong Jong Cha 74
5. Jin Woo Heo 56
6. Nikos Polychronopoulos 54
7. Berkay Karakurt 46
8. Eddy Merckx 38.

Those eight players will play for four more places today:

Group A: Quyet Chien Tran, Nikos Polychronopoulos, Berkay Karakurt and Myeong Jong Cha

Group B: Jun Tae Kim, Jung Han Heo, Jin Woo Heo and Eddy Merckx.

Therese Klompenhouwer was the best ranked qualifier for the women's final. The Dutch finished with 22 points and 1.018 and a highest run of 13. Numbers 2, 3 and 4 are Park jeong hyeon, Lee shin young and Cho Bo mi. The final featuring those four, in Survival form, will be played Saturday night at 9pm at the Jamsie vita 500 Coliseum (2pm Dutch time).

The four final players in the ladies Survival with Therese Klompenhouwer (second left) and three Koreans

The final standings of the first day in the men's six groups were:

Group A:

1. Dick Jaspers 118
2. Martin Horn 50
3. Jin Woo Heo 42
4. Jun Tae Kim 30

Group B:

1. Ruben Legazpi 90
2. Marco Zanetti 62
3. Jung Han Heo 46
4. Alessio D'Agata 42

Group C:

1. Chi Yeon Cho 102
2. Torbjörn Blomdahl 54
3. Myeong Jong Cha 50
4. Nikos Polychronopoulos 34

Group D:

1. Van Ly Dao 78
2. Tayfun Tasdemir 70
3. Berkay Karakurt 46
4. Quyet Chien Tran 46

Group E:

1. Haeng Jik Kim 105
2. Ye-Sung Jeong 69
3. Myung Woo Cho 33
4. Phuong Vinh Bao 33

Group F:

1. Sameh Sidhom 109
2. Wan Young Choi 65
3. Eddy Merckx 57
4. Jung Hee Lee 9

The final standings of the three groups on Friday:

Group A:

1. Quyet Chien Tran 142
2. Eddy Merckx 38
3. Phuong Vinh Bao 34
4. Jung Hee Lee 26

Group B:

1. Jun Tae Kim 104
2. Myeong Jong Cha 74
3. Jin Woo Heo 56
4. Alessio D'Agata 6

Group C:

1. Jung Han Heo 122
2. Nikos Polychronopoulos 54
3. Berkay Karakurt 46
4. Myung Woo Cho 18.