Korean billiards has done it again.
Oh Myung-gyu won the World Junior 3 Cushion title in a nail-biting match. Lee Shin-young (Chungnam Billiards Federation) won another world championship in women’s 3-cushion.
Oh Myung-kyu (19, Gangwon Billiards Federation) won the 14th World Junior 3 Cushion Championship final on Sunday night in Ankara, Turkey, defeating Germany’s Amir Ibrahimov 35:33 in 37 games.
Oh’s victory made him the first Korean player to win the title in four years, and the fourth World Junior 3-Cushion Champion after Kim Haeng-jik (2007, 2010-2012), Kim Tae-kwan (2015) and Choi Sung-woo (2016, 2018-2019).
Korea has now won nine titles at the World Junior level
Korea also had its best-ever performance at the World Championships, taking third in the men’s 3-cushion (Choi Sung-woo), first in the women’s 3-cushion (Lee Shin-young) and first in the junior 3-cushion (Oh Myung-kyu).
The final game lasted 37 innings, but it was so close that it was hard to pick a winner. The two players went back and forth, tying and leading numerous times. Especially in the middle innings, the score was close, with only one to three runs separating the teams.
After the first 10 innings, Ibrahimov led 13:7, thanks to a high run of 5 points (6 innings). This was the largest lead of the match, but Oh Myung-gyu scored eight points in the 11th through 13th frames to extend the lead to 15:17. From then on, the two players kept the game within one or two points until the end.
In the middle of the game, they were evenly matched with four consecutive kills (Oh Myung-gyu) and three consecutive kills (Ibrahimov). The score was 24:25 in the 23rd inning and 27:27 in the 28th.
Especially towards the end, the junior players (Oh Myung-gyu, 19, Ibrahimov, 15) made a series of mistakes that prevented them from scoring additional runs. With a 34:33 lead, Oh Myung-gyu managed to hit a short outside shot from a tricky placement in the 37th inning for 35 points and the long-awaited victory.
Oh Myung-gyu was selected alongside Jeong Ye-sung (Seoul Billiards Federation) in the 52-player domestic qualifier for the World Junior 3-Cushion Championship in August, beating out 26-to-1 competition. (Jeong lost a heartbreaker to Daniel Sainz Pardo in the quarterfinals of the tournament.)
Born in Hwacheon, Gangwon Province, Oh Myung-gyu started playing billiards in his freshman year of high school (Hwacheon Gandong High School), traveling between Hwacheon and Seoul on weekends to learn the game systematically. He graduated from high school earlier this year and is currently enrolled in his first year at Hallim University.토토사이트
Jung Dong-il, executive director of the Gangwon Billiard Federation, said, “Oh Myung-kyu lived in a single room in front of Hallim University and practiced hard. He has solid fundamentals and above all, a competitive temperament.”
Sung Nak-hoon, director of the Gangwon Billiard Federation, who commentated on the final, which was broadcast live on Sky Sports and Africa TV, also said, “After Oh Myung-kyu was selected as a junior representative, he practiced for more than 10 hours a day.” “With such persistence and determination, he performed well at the world tournament.”