World Cup Veghel 2024

Veghel, October 26th, 2024.

Who can stop the Vietnamese tsunami? Not even Frédéric Caudron could do it. In a tense final where nerves were eating away at both finalists, the precision master from Ho Chi Minh overcame the fluency genius from Turnhout: 50-38 in 28/27 innings. 

It may not have been the best final in World Cup history, but it was certainly exciting. A few strange opening innings left Tran, who had won the lag and thus the break shot, on zero points after five attempts. Caudron put in a few unforced errors too, and the match really only came alive after Tran had made a 7 and an 8.  

The Vietnamese slowly pulled away from the Belgian, but there was never a knock-out. He finished the match scoring 3-2-2-2-2-3-1-2-3, a score sheet you rarely see in modern 3-cushion. Caudron did not have a lot to work with in terms of position, and he could not do the impossible.  

In the first semi, Caudron had seen off one of the great Vietnamese talents, Tran Thanh Tu Nguyen, who had eliminated Jaspers in great style on Friday. It was close (50-45 in 31), and it was visible that Frédéric was not in the form he had demonstrated earlier in the week. 

Quyet Chien Tran had a much better start in his duel with Peter Ceulemans: 20-6 and 27-10 to the Vietnamese. Peter Ceulemans always puts up a fight, and he did this time. But his runs of 5, 4, 6 and 3 were not high enough to do the job: 50-37 in 23/22 to Tran.  

Quyet Chien Tran takes the lead in the race for the Overall World Cup of 2024, pulling away from Dick Jaspers. There are two World Cups still to play: Seoul in November and Sharm El Sheikh in December.  

Tran Thanh Tu Nguyen wins his first World Cup bronze. It’s the second medal of that colour for Peter Ceulemans. Frédéric Caudron wins his thirteenth silver, Quyet Chien Tran wins his fourth gold. 

The best general average in Veghel was played by Phuong Vinh Bao: 2.522.  

The best match to 40 points was played by Quyet Chien Tran: 40 in 9. 

The best match to 50 points was played by Tran Thanh Tu Nguyen: 50 in 13. 

The high run of the event was made by Tayfun Tasdemir: 17. 

The tournament average (last 32) was quite high, the best we’ve seen since the format change: 1.625.

UMB.