3-Cushion
CAÏRO
The explosion in Tonny Carlsen's final sprint came right in time for a brilliant finish. On the first day of the three cushion World championship in Cairo, the spotlights in the game room turned to the 53-year-old Scandinavian champion. Two innings before the end of his match with Colombian Juan Jose Garcia, Carlsen attacked with a stunning run of 19, which was only stopped one carom from victory. He missed one more time, but then, one shot later, Tonny scored his last for a 40-22 victory in 19 innings. 'Danish dynamite', who lost sixteen kilos of weight last summer, allready showed his high class in the field with world star players. The most striking results on the first day: Caudron played the best match with a victory in 13 innings and the other Belgian, Merckx, lost to Turkish Murat Celik, 40-39.
Tonny Carlsen's start was far from spectacular until that sudden final sprint. The South American Garcia, recovered from a motorcycle accident, was able to follow his opponent's pace to 18-17 in fifteen. The Viking's knockout was too powerful for the young, former junior world champion. Tonny Carlsen said in his comment after the match , "I didn't feel the table at all, not because it is a bad table, but because I didn't start well". That suddenly changed during the high run. "My feeling and my stroke were perfect, the positional playing allowed me to make that high run. I am very happy of course and I must try to keep this focus. But we will see, tomorrow is another day.''
He explained that it was a tough fight to make a new start this summer. ,"I have worked hard to lose a lot of weight but the result is, that I feel much better and have more confidence. I want to give my all to reach my highest level and make a step on the world ranking. It's hard work, but I want to go on in this way.''
The last session of the first day was reserved for the top four of the world, facing four losers from the first rounds. Frédéric Caudron toppled all the others in his first performance. At full speed, the ruling champion cracked the opposition of the old hometown hero, Egyptian Mohsen Fouda, who was knocked down 40-11 in 13 innings. There is no doubt at all that Caudron is focused on a new world title.
The first day's stunt came from the Turkish outside player Murat Celik, who beat Eddy Merckx in a break-down battle. The Belgian had a smooth start (17-8), but the gap was slowly closed in the second part and led to a thrilling final part. Celik who lost in his first match to Tellez 40-38, first ran from 37-37 to 37-39 , Merckx scored twice, but missed his last. Then, the Turk used his first match ball for 40-39 in 22. HaengJik Kim started well against Sacco, but then the rhythm went down, bringing him to 40-27 in 38. Marco Zanetti tuned up his form in his easy match with Christoforou from Cyprus, 40-18 in 25.
The championship in the Egyptian city started with the first four sessions, divided over the sixteen groups. Jérémy Bury was one inning better in his match against Harrie van de Ven than Tonny Carlsen (40-21 in 18). Two other highlights were the start of the Japanese Yusuke Mori with 11 from the break (40-16 against Mohamed Abdin) and the run of 14 Czech Radovan Hajek scored, which was countered later in the match by Pedro Piedrabuena. The American won 40-34 in 34.
Two Koreans, Sung-Won Choi and Hyun Min Seo, captivated the spectators with a nice fight. Choi was the best in the last part with 13 points in his last five innings Seo scored only one time: 40-35 in 27. The Vietnamese clash yielded an unexpected winner. Minh Cam Ma defeated Quyet Chien Tran 40-30 in 23 innings. Filippos Kasidokostas and Dinh Nai Ngo were solid winners against Sacco and Shehayeb (22 innings). Erick Tellez resisted the final offensive of Murat Celik (40-38), Robinson Morales and Ruben Legazpi started their mission against Jäschke and Nadi with wins in 28 innings. Eddy Leppens was a slow starter against Patińo 40-30 in 37.
Frédéric Caudron, best match on the opening day, 40 in 13
Murat Celik, a stunning finish against Merckx: 40-39
Eddy Merckx, started with a loss in Cairo
Japanese Yusuke Mori, 11 from the break in his first World championship
Sung-Won Choi, a better final sprint than his countryman Seo
The groups in the qualifications:
Poule A: Frédéric Caudron, Arnim Kahofer, Mohsen Fouda
Poule B: Eddy Merckx, Erick Tellez, Murat Celik
Poule C: HaengJik Kim, Guido Sacco, Filippos Kasidokostas
Poule D: Marco Zanetti, Ahmed Abdallah, Christakis Christoforou
Poule E: Dick Jaspers, Dustin Jäschke, Robinson Morales
Poule F: Jung Han Heo, Mohamed Abdin, Yusuke Mori
Poule G: Sung-Won Choi, David Pennör, Hyun Min Seo
Poule H: Jae-Ho Cho, Riad Nady, Ruben Legazpi
Poule I: Murat Naci Coklu, Tonny Carlsen, Jose Juan Garcia
Poule J: Torbjörn Blomdahl, Pedro Piedrabuena, Radovan Hajek
Poule K: Sameh Sidhom, Anh Vu Duong, Alexander Salazar
Poule L: Quyet Chien Tran, Minh Cam Ma, Alessio D'Agata
Poule M: Dani Sánchez, Dong-Koong Kang, Pedro Gonzalez
Poule N: Nguyen Quoc Nguyen, Jérémy Bury, Harrie van de Ven
Poule O: Semih Sayginer, Eddy Leppens, Juan Patino.
Poule P: Tayfun Tasdemir, Dinh Nai Ngo, Yasser Shehayeb.