ANKARA - Turkish top favorite Tayfun Tasdemir finished his match at the end of the evening with a little luck. Arnim Kahofer, in the form of his life, almost gave away a comfortable lead, but eventually won his match against Glenn Hofman. And Eddy Merckx could finally escape to a brave French player. The best of sixteen winners in the evening sessions was Martin Horn with 50 in 22 against Martin Bohac. The Turks are in the last 16 with 3, the Belgians with 3, the Dutch and the French with 2, joined by one Swedish defending champion, an Italian, a German and an Austrian outsider who are in the final round for the quarter-finals.
Routined players, top favorits and outsiders will compete for the most coveted positions in the European finals on Saturday. Tayfun Tasdemir had to go pretty deep to get rid of Brian Knudsen (50-44 in 30), Dick Jaspers needed a long run-up against Kostas Kokkoris (50-41 in 29) and Eddy Merckx escaped against Cédric Melnytschenko (50-48 in 36), to name but a few contenders with a hard, winning final sprint.
Much easier was it for Marco Zanetti against Ruben Fernandez (50-18 in 28), Martin Horn against Martin Bohac (50-21 in 22), Peter Ceulemans against Dimitrios Seleventas (50-28 in 29), Berkay Karakurt against Adrien Tachoire (50-28 in 28) and Jeffrey Jorissen against Carlos Crespo (50-27 in 32) to join the top 16 of this Europeans.
The matches are on Saturday:
11.00 (10.00 Western Europe):
Torbjörn Blomdahl-Sergio Jimenez
Eddy Merckx-Jérémy Bury
Marco Zanetti-Berkay Karakurt
Roland Forthomme-Mikaël Degvogelaere
13.00 (12.00 Western Europe):
Dick Jaspers-Jeffrey Jorissen
Yilmaz Özcan-Peter Ceulemans
Tayfun Tasdemir-Ruben Legazpi
Martin Horn-Arnim Kahofer
With Merckx, Ceulemans and Forthomme, the Belgians achieved the maximum score in this first knock-out round with 32. The Turks shone with Tasdemir, Karakurt and Özcan, but lost Tolgahan Kiraz and Burhan Genc. The Dutch were halved, as Dick Jaspers and Jeffrey Jorissen continue, Jean Paul de Bruyn, from the duo that became world champion, and Glenn Hofman were eliminated.
Arnim Kahofer is one of the revelations so far. The Austrian, who had a fantastic showing in the Coupe D'Europe two weeks ago, survived the preliminary rounds with an excellent average and had a flying start in the first knock-outs against Glenn Hofman with three on average until the break. However, things got tricky at the end when the Dutchman suddenly started scoring after the break and Kahofer suffered a noticeable setback. Just in time, he found his form again: 50-43 in 32. Mikhaël Devogelaere and Jeffrey Jorissen were some other outsiders. The Frenchman defeated Polychronopoulos 50-33 in 30, while the Dutchman beat Carlos Crespo 50-27 in 32.
Peter Ceulemans, best of the Belgians
Arnim Kahofer, best form in his career so far
Tayfun Tasdemir, frontrunner in the Turkish squad
The winners’ scores:
- Martin Horn 2-2.272-7
- Marco Zanetti 2-1.785-10
- Berkay Karakurt 2-1.785-9
- Peter Ceulemans 2-1.724-8
- Dick Jaspers 2-1.724-5
- Tayfun Tasdemir 2-1.666-7
- Mikaël Devogelaere 2-1.666-6
- Torbjörn Blomdahl 2-1.562-9
- Jeffrey Jorissen 2-1.562-6
- Arnim Kahofer 2-1.515-11
- Jérémy Bury 2-1.515-7
- Ruben Legazpi 2-1.470-9
- Eddy Merckx 2-1.388-6
- Sergio Jimenez 2-1.282-6
- Yilmaz Özcan 2-1.219-8
- Roland Forthomme 2-1.162-5
Best average at the losers:
Brian Knudsen 1.517
Kostas Kokkoris 1.413
Glenn Hofman 1.343
Cédric Melnytschenko 1.333
Nick Polychronopoulos 1.137
Tolgahan Kiraz 1.093
Jean Paul de Bruijn 0.902