3-Cushion
ANTALYA - The Spanish victory at the European Championship for national teams is today, Monday, February 17, followed by the first World Cup at the same Antalya location. The 2020 cycle takes place this week, the final is on Sunday, February 23. This year's calendar is followed by World Cups in Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh in May, Porto in Portugal in June, Guri in Korea in July, Veghel in the Netherlands in October, Cheongju in Korea in November and Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt in December. That brings the cycle to seven World Cups in 2020.
In recent days, a profound disagreement has become public between Kozoom Group and Kozoom international (50% Kozoom Group, 50% Kozoom Korea). The controversy is between the CEO of Kozoom Group, Xavier Carrer and of Kozoom Korea, William Oh (Sung-Kyu Oh). The extensive announcment of both has now been published: of Kozoom Group by Xavier Carrer and Kozoom International by William Oh.
As a result of that conflict, the competitions are all broadcast for free on Kozoom Korea Youtube, a link gives members access to the broadcasts.
The first World Cup in the Turkish resort gives a new impulse to players who returned for now to the major tournaments, like the Danish quartet Nelin-Andersen-Sörensen-Knudsen, Peter De Backer, Peter Ceulemans, Barry van Beers, Gwendal Maréchal, Michael Nilsson, Mikaël Devogelaere and a big Turkish delegation.
The list of seeded players is the most high level possible with Dick Jaspers, Marco Zanetti, Torbjörn Blomdahl, Eddy Merckx, Haeng-Jik Kim, Tayfun Tasdemir, Quyet Chien Tran, Sameh Sidhom, Semih Sayginer, Jérémy Bury, Murat Naci Coklu, Cho Myung-Woo, Martin Horn and Cho Jae-Ho, according to the UMB rankings. The wildcards are given to Pedro Gonzales (Columbia) and Turkish players Lütfi Cenet and Can Capak.
Among the players starting in the qualifying round up to the 32-player final are big names like Dani Sánchez, Roland Forthomme, Nguyen Duc Anh Chien, Choi Sung-Won, Dion Nelin, Nikos Polychronopoulos, Nguyen Quoc Nguyen , Ngo Dinh Nai, Kim Jun-Tae and Antonio Montes.
The ranking points of this World Cup replace the points of Somabay 2018. That means: Dick Jaspers defends the maximum 80 points, HaengJik Kim and Semih Sayginer 38.
The first preliminaries start today, February 17. The main tournament starts on Friday. In these first World Cups, the new rules of the UMB are applied for the first time. The knock-out matches in the final phase are played to 50 caroms, the shotclock goes to 30 seconds.
Most famous players who take action in the preliminaries:
Monday, February 17: Allan Jensen (Den), Adam Baca (Cz), Andreas Efler (Aus), Hakan Celik (Tur), Karina Jetten (Neth), Ahn Ji Hun (Kor), Herbert Thuer (Aus).
Tuesday: Bernard Baudoin (Fr), Oh Sung Kyu (Kor), Volkan Cetin (Neth), Brian Knudsen (Swe), Serdar Bas (Tur), Gülsen Degener (Tur), Radek Novak (Cz), Jose Miguel Soares (Por ), Jose Maria Mas (Sp), O Takeshima (Jap), Cengiz Karaka (Ger), Mikael Devogelaere (Fra).
Wednesday:
Kostas Antonatos (Gr), Michael Nilsson (Swe), Therese Klompenhouwer (Neth), Gwendal Maréchal (Fra), Murat Tüzül (Tur), Gökhan Salman (Tur), Kostas Kokkoris (Gr), Chi Yeon Cho (Kor), Turgay Orak (Tur), Jacob Sörensen (Den), Rui Costa (Por), Xuan Cuong Ma (Viet), Ronny Lindemann (Ger), Peter Ceulemans (Bel), Peter De Backer (Bel), Tolgahan Kiraz (Tur).
Thursday:
Thomas Andersen (Den), Barry van Beers (Neth), Dustin Jäschke (Ger), Yusuke Mori (Jap), Antonio Montes (Sp), Duc Ahn Chien Nguyen (Viet), Dani Sánchez (Sp), Sung-Won Choi ( Kor), Roland Forthomme (Bel), Jung Han Heo (Kor), Nikos Polychronopoulos (Gr), Nguyen Quoc Nguyen (Viet), Trung Hau Do Nguyen (Viet), Dinh Nai Ngo (Viet).
Most players come from Korea (13), Germany (13) and Vietnam (11). This is the 184th World Cup in history. The prize money is unchanged after 2019: 16,000 for the winner, 10,000 for the runner-up, 6,000 for the numbers three and four, 3,500 for the losers in the quarterfinals, 2,500 for the numbers 9-16, 1,500 for the numbers 17-32 .
The matches are played from 11.00 to 20.00 Turkish time, 9.00 and 18.00 Western Europe.
The matches can be followed at the following link:
https: www.youtube.com/user/kozoomkorea
live scoring and streaming:
http://eulive.cuesco.net/
