Pre-qualifying for the World Cup in Vigil is already a difficult task; Jerry Hermans keeps himself alive with a clever series Regional sports

The preliminary qualifiers began on Sunday, with billiard players from Korea, Austria, Portugal and Turkey, among others, coming to the CHV Noordkade in Vegel and paying an entry fee of one hundred euros. The chance of them eventually making it to the main tournament, which begins Thursday, is not very good. However, they are among the lucky ones, because the 170 pool players on the waiting list for this tournament were disappointed by their low ranking.

If the ‘Lucky Ones’ can win their group of three – where every defeat could be fatal – the same task will follow on Monday in the pre-qualifiers, Tuesday in the pre-qualifiers, and Wednesday in the qualifiers. New players are constantly entering from three platforms – from Senegal, Egypt, Japan and others – who, due to their classification, have to play fewer preliminary rounds, so the level is higher.

At least 132 pool players will have to work through one, two, three or four qualifying rounds this week and try to secure one of the 15 spots still available for the main tournament; Only seventeen players were placed there directly or received a wild card from the organization. The former applies – of course – to Dick Jaspers, and the latter to Sam Van Etten and Geoffrey Jurisson.

“Local player” Jan van Erp from Heswijk-Dinther is on the verge of collapse after losing his first match in the preliminary round to German Ronnie Lindemann on Tuesday afternoon. Only when the score was 28-17 in favor of the German did Van Erp find the accelerator. With a series of seven caroms, he closed a significant portion of the gap, but in a thrilling final stretch, Lindemann held on (30-27) in 22 rounds. Van Erp will now have to beat Egyptian Rajai Henry later in the day and then hope he can help the German.

Oosterhout’s Jerry Hermans was able to keep himself in line for a shot. His opponent Konstantinos Kokouris finished at 30-21, but Hermans scored the equalizer and made it even at nine: 30-30. Their matches against Raymond Grote, who plays for the United States (and is an immigrant from the Netherlands), should determine who can continue into the playoffs.

Tilberger Volkan Setien faces the same situation as Jan Van Erp, who lost in his first match to Belgian Steve Van Hees (20-30). After the elimination of Netherlands’ Therese Klompenhauer earlier this week, there was only one woman left in the tournament on Tuesday. Korean… Kim.

World Cup Three Pillows in Vigil.
Pre-qualification on Tuesday, including: Lindemann (Germany) – Van Erp 30-27 (22), Kokoris (Grey) – Hermans 30-30 (17), Van Hees (Bale) – Setien 30-20 (30), Van Beers – Vasseur (France) 30- 17 (14 games), Wilkowski – Valangas (Grey) 30-16 (28), Hoffman – Ayman (Egypt) 30-11 (13), Benor (Sen) – Van Wijk 30-15 (23).