By Bert Van Manen

Jaspers just can’t get enough of winning.

He will turn sixty next year, but there is no talk of retirement. Jaspers loves his billiards too much to go sit on the porch. And he loves winning World Cups, as he did this week in Seoul for the 31st time, beating Tayfun Tasdemir in the final: 50-36 in 20/19 innings. If the new generation wants to take the crown away from this Dutchman, they will have to match his mental strength and professionalism. That’s a big ask.

Tasdemir and Jaspers were both over 2 average during the first half of the match, but they were scoring one’s, two’s and three’s. You felt something had to happen, and it did. In the 14th and 15thinnings, Jaspers ran 7 and 10. That was too much even for Tasdemir, and a few innings later there were handshakes. Another excellent tournament for the Turk, another World Cup for the Dutchman.

In a much-anticipated semi, Jaspers had to get past world champion Myung Woo Cho. He was the quickest out of the box with an early seven, but Cho came back with a run of 11 when he was trailing, to turn 43-29 into 43-40. A three and a four sealed the deal for Jaspers.

The other semi saw Jun Tae Kim take a big lead when he was on 22 after six innings. Tasdemir held on and the new Korean world record holder appeared to freeze in the home stretch. The Turk took full advantage and finished brilliantly with five and six in the last two innings: 50-48 in 28.

Seoul, following Veghel, was another exceptional World Cup tournament. The grand average for the last 32 players was 1.646, slightly better even than Veghel. The 2024 World Cups have been won by Quyet Chien Tran (Bogota), Duc Minh Tran (Ho Chi Minh), Jung Han Heo (Ankara), Dick Jaspers (Porto), Quyet Chien Tran (Veghel) and Dick Jaspers (Seoul).

The best match in Seoul was played by Jun Tae Kim: 40 in 8.

The high run was made by Jun Tae Kim: 28 (equals the world record).

The best individual average was played by Van Ly Dao: 2.214.

In the race for the Overall World Cup win of 2024, Jaspers has closed the gap with Quyet Chien Tran. Both are now on 248 points, and one of these two will take the extra UMB prize of 30.000 Euro. Second place wins 15.000, third place wins 10.000. There is one more event to be played: Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt, from 1-7 December 2024.

Korean player KIM JUN TAE equalizes the world record with a high run of 28 points in his match against Glenn Hofman in the Seoul World Cup!