Myung Woo Cho (24) conquers the entire world top

SHARM EL SHEIKH - The undisputed super-talent in world three-cushion, 24-year-young Korean Myung Woo Cho, has won his first World Cup after having conquered three world titles in his junior yearss. In the final World Cup 2022 in Egypt's Sharm El Sheikh on this Saturday afternoon, he defeated Spaniard Dani Sánchez in the final 50-45 in 17 innings, a match average 2.941 for the World Cup gold winner and 2.647 for the silver number two. The Korean, who has been out of the circuit for two years due to his military service in his country, is back on the scene and has risen to the top 12 in the world rankings with his victory. Dutchman Dick Jaspers remains in the No 1 position ahead of Dani Sánchez and Marco Zanetti.

The spotlight in this latest World Cup was more then ever on Myung Woo Cho, who was on the very top podium in a tournament with the world's top players for the first time after four bronze medals since 2016. In the stretch to his first glorious victory, in the Red Sea stronghold, he defeated Dani Sánchez (final), among others, Chang Hoon Seo (semi-final), Dick Jaspers (quarter-final), Jun Tae Kim, another Korean in the final stage and even Dani Sánchez also in the first knock-outs.

The world stage of the World Cups embraced a player who, according to all experts, has a huge future ahead of him. Myung Woo Cho is an exponent of the Korean billiards stronghold with its many thousands of upcoming billiard players, where Sung Won Choi was the only world champion so far in his own country in 2014. The wait for his successor has been seven years, but no one doubts that Myung Woo Cho will be crowned the world's best in the years to come. He is already famous in the World Cup circuit for his superb technique, perfect stroke, immense variety of creativity and his competitive mentality. By coincidence he was able to shine twice these days opposite Dani Sánchez, his sponsor and close friend, under whose wings he has been developing for a few years. The Spaniard discovered the little Korean's huge talent early on, this weekend the moment was there when Sánchez stood in his shadow two times in one World Cup.

The world top's two smallest players went into the final with flat starts. Myung Woo Cho started with two zeros and three times 4, the Spaniard with 1, 4 and three times 0. Then the match got underway when Sánchez scored 9, 2 and 7, Cho countered with 7, 1 and 12 for a 33-25 lead in 9. That again was the signal for a short-lived relapse, in which Cho did manage to pull even further ahead with 6 (45-32) and set up the sprint to the finish. Sánchez still came back with 3, 3, 6 and 4, but at 46-45 the stoic Cho set off his golden final sprint with four glorious caroms: 50-45 in 17.

Dani Sánchez, in his magnificent year of becoming European champion and winning the World Cup in Seoul, just missed his second 2022 World Cup despite strong performances on the last two days against Haeng Jik Kim, Jérémy Bury and Marco Zanetti. The Spaniard moves slightly closer to Dick Jaspers again in the world rankings. The Dutchman now has 503 ranking points, Dani Sánchez comes at 41 points with 462, Marco Zanetti follows with 319 ahead of Sameh Sidhom with 314 and world champion Tayfun Tasdemir in fifth place with 308 points.

Also on the Sharm podium were Marco Zanetti and Chang Hoon Seo. The Korean won sensationally in the quarter-finals against Quyet Chien Tran, the Vietnamese who signed for the highlight of this World Cup in his match against Peter Ceulemans, in which he won 50-27 (14 innings, 3.571 average) and finished improbably strong in the last four innings with runs of 22 and 13.

Marco Zanetti, not so far away from the form of his life, continues to compete superbly in the top three rankings in the year in which he turned 60, with second place in Ho Chi Minh and third places in Ankara and Sharm El Sheikh, where he was eliminated by Dani Sánchez in the semi-finals. That match had a turbulent ending as Zanetti claimed a valid carom in the closing innings, which was counted down by a famous Egyptian referee. The Italian, sensing injustice, entered a fierce discussion and was supported by Torbjörn Blomdahl, among others, in the live commentary: the Swede saw the replays and was sure of a clean point. Zanetti was not vindicated, had to go to his seat at a score of 48-37 for Sánchez, after which the Spaniard was able to finish with two points.

Myung Woo Cho won his semi-final from Chang Hoon Seo 50-33 in 27.

The first qualifying rounds on the Red Sea were won by Dane Allen Schröder (1.276 average), Dutchman Sam van Etten (1.764), Vietnamese Xuan Cuong Ma (1.538) and Korean Myung Woo Cho (2.424) ahead of Peter Ceulemans (2.162) and Duc Anh Chien Nguyen (2.105) in the final qualifying round. The leading players survived the first knockouts with Jun Tae Kim the best with 2.051 on average, Dick Jaspers, Quyet Chien Tran and Jérémy Bury with 2.000. The famous players eliminated in that round were Tayfun Tasdemir, Torbjörn Blomdahl, Eddy Merckx, Sameh Sidhom, Martin Horn, Murat Naci Coklu, Choong Bok Lee and Duc Anh Chien Nguyen.

The highest average was by Dani Sánchez with 2.212, the highest match average by Quyet Chien Tran with 3.571, the highest series by Quyet Chien Tran with 22.

The final ranking in the Sharm El Sheikh World Cup 2022:

1 Myung Woo Cho 12-2.081-13

2 Dani Sánchez 10-2.212-11
3 Marco Zanetti 10-2.064-12
3 Chang Hoon Seo 9-1.632-10
5 Dick Jaspers 8-2.047-13
6 Quyet Chien Tran 8-2.029-22
7 Jérémy Bury 8-1.777-13
8 Nikos Polychronopoulos 8-1.595-10
9 Jun Tae Kim 4-1.948-12
10 Haeng Jik Kim 4-1.727-13
11 Dion Nelin 4-1.556-10
12 Semih Sayginer 4-1.414-11
13 Peter Ceulemans 4-1.372-16
14 Jung Han Heo 4-1.354-9
15 Roland Forthomme 3-1.546-9
16 Pierre Soumagne 3-1.485-8
17 Omer Karakurt 4-1.418-9
18 Torbjörn Blomdahl 4-1.337-8
19 Eddy Merckx 2-1.816-10
20 Choong Bok Lee 2-1.565-10

The new world ranking:
1 Dick Jaspers 503
2 Dani Sánchez 462
3 Marco Zanetti 319
4 Sameh Sidhom 314
5 Tayfun Tasdemir 308
6 Torbjörn Blomdahl 300
7 Quyet Chien Tran 290
8 Eddy Merckx 284
9 Semih Sayginer 261
10 Haeng Jik Kim 251
11 Jérémy Bury 229
12 Myung Woo Cho 211
13 Nikos Polychronopoulos 211
14 Jung Han Heo 210
15 Marin Horn 176
16 Jun Tae Kim 162.

Dick Jaspers is crowned the World Cup overall winner in 2022

1 Dick Jaspers 268
2 Dani Sánchez 186
3 Torbjörn Blomdahl 178
4 Eddy Merckx 158
5 Marco Zanetti 144
6 Sameh Sidhom 126
7 Haeng Jik Kim 124
8 Quyet Chien Tran 110
9 Jérémy Bury 98
10 Choong Bok Lee 97
11 Semih Sayginer 88
12 Myeong Jong Cha 88.

Pictures Paul Brekelmans