Team Asia will wear white, while team Europe will wear blue. (Photo: thethao.vnecdn.net) Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnam’s top cueists Tran Quyet Chien, Nguyen Quoc Nguyenand Ma Minh Cam will join the Asian team to compete in the CeulemansContinental Cup, held from December 14 to 16 in Bordeaux, France.
This is the first time three cushions billiard world has organised theinter-continental cup to put Asia and Europe in direct competition.
The three Vietnamese cueists will team up with five top players from theRepublic Korea – Kim Haeng-jik, Choi Sung-won, Heo Jung-han, Cho Jae-ho andKang Dong-koong – to form team Asia. Players were selected based on theirpositions in the UMB world ranking at the end of last year.
The Europe team includes Frederic Caudron and Eddy Merckx from Belgium, DickJaspers from the Netherlands, Marco Zanetti from Italy, Torbjorn Blomdahl fromSweden, Dani Sanchez from Spain, Murat Naci Coklu from Turkey and Jeremy Buryfrom France.
The European team is the favourite to win as they have the world’s top fourcueists in Caudron, Merckx, Jaspers and Zanetti, according to UMB’s publicratings on November 18.
Asia’s top cueist, Chien, ranks sixth in the world.
The tournament has 24 rounds with a maximum score of 25 in each round. Oneplayer from each team takes turns playing against each other in each round.When a player gets to 25 points, the teams will switch players. The first teamto reach 600 points wins.
The reward is 160,000 USD, of which 15,000 USD will be given to each player inthe winning team.
The Ceulemans Cup has similar rules to golf’s Ryder cup and nine-ballbilliards’s Mosconi Cup. - VNA
VNA
