GWANGJU – The world's elite of three cushion and a selection of Asian billiards players will gather in the coming days for the penultimate World Cup of the year in Gwangju, South Korea, at the Bitgoeul Gymnasium. The 6th tournament in this cycle follows the World Cups in Bogota, Ho Chi Minh City, Ankara, Porto and Antwerp. The tournament kicks off on Monday, November 3rd, the finals are on Sunday, November 9th. The circuit has seen five different winners so far: Thanh Luc Tran, Dick Jaspers, Eddy Merckx, Myung-woo Cho and Martin Horn. Tayfun Tasdemir narrowly missed out on the overall victory twice, other runners-up were Jung-han Heo, Quyet Chien Tran and Jérémy Bury. Dick Jaspers leads the World Cup standings with 162 points, followed by Tayfun Tasdemir and Eddy Merckx with 152 points each. The 17 seeded players who will start the tournament on November 7 in round 32 (UMB Events rankings, July 5 edition): Dick Jaspers, Myung-woo Cho, Quyet Chien Tran, Eddy Merckx, Marco Zanetti, Thanh Luc Tran, Tayfun Tasdemir, Jung-han Heo, Sameh Sidhom, Jérémy Bury, Tolgahan Kiraz, Berkay Karakurt, Frédéric Caudron, Martin Horn, and the three wildcards: Daniel Morales (Colombia), Haeng Jik Kim (Korea) and Wan Young Choi (Korea).
The remaining 132 players start in various qualifying rounds between November 3 and 6, based on their world ranking. Jung-han Heo (number 8 in the world) is defending the 80 points he earned with his victory in Ankara 2024 and must qualify for the round of 16 or risk elimination in the top 14. Phuong Vinh Bao, who celebrates his 30th birthday today (Friday) and is ranked 13th, is defending 54 points and must reach the final in Gwangju to maintain his position. Sameh Sidhom and Martin Horn are defending 36 points.
The total field of players includes 29 Koreans, 28 Turks, and 19 Vietnamese. Many Dutch and Belgian players are staying home for this long journey. The Dutch and Belgian players each have four players: Dick Jaspers has qualified for the Netherlands, Eddy Merckx and Frédéric Caudron for Belgium. Other countries include Spain with 8, France with 6, and Colombia with 7. The reserve list of 34 players includes 19 Turks and 9 French players.
The first known players announced for Monday, November 3rd, are Carlos Anguita, Shouta Funaki, Daniel Sainz Pardo, Trung Hau Do Nguyen, Tatsuo Arai, Chi Yeon Cho, and Yuko Nishimoto, the woman who stood on the podium at a World Championship. Joining the field on Tuesday will among others, Ryuuji Umeda, Alexander Salazar, Takeshima O, Huberney Cataño, Pedro Gonzalez, Jose Maria Mas, Kostas Papakonstantinou, Kostas Kokkoris, Ha Eun Kim, Gülsen Degener, and Marcos Morales. Players joining the field on Wednesday will include: Jose Juan Garcia, Dimitrios Seleventas, Ahmet Alp, Pierre Soumagne, Arnim Kahofer, Mikael Devogelaere, Maxime Panaia, David Pennör, and Thanh Tien Le.
Thursday's final qualifying round: Torbjörn Blomdahl, Roland Forthomme, Omer Karakurt, Phuong Vinh Bao, Peter Ceulemans, Hong Chiem Thai, Glenn Hofman, Ruben Legazpi, Nick Polychronopoulos, Chang Hoon Seo, Turgay Orak, Gökhan Salman, Myeong Jong Cha, Sergio Jimenez, TTT Nguyen, Sam van Etten, Bong Joo Hwang, Manuel Rui Costa, and Van Ly Dao.
Among the seeded players and wildcards, Frédéric Caudron will play against Eddy Merckx, which was the final of the last World Championship in Antwerp. Dick Jaspers will face Daniel Morales, Myung-woo Cho will play against Haeng Jik Kim, Tayfun Tasdemir will play against Jérémy Bury, and Jung Han Heo against Sameh Sidhom.
There is an 8-hour time difference between Western Europe and South Korea. The last of the World Cup cycle is from 7 to 13 December in Sharm El Sheikh.
Frédëric Caudron (r) and Eddy Merckx, the replay from the World's final match
Phuong Vinh Bao who turned 30 this week among his fans