The three- cushion world cup 1996/7 was the third BWA world cup tournament in the eleventh year of the three-cushion world cup. The tournament took place from 5th to 8th December 1996 in this discipline of carom billiards in Antwerp . It was the thirteenth three-cushion World Cup tournament in Belgium.
Torbjörn Blomdahl , who started the BWA World Cup year on average , won his first World Cup tournament in Antwerp in 1996 and his 21st overall. In the round of 16 against the Dutchman Bert van Manen, however, he only narrowly prevailed with 3-2 sets. After a relatively smooth win against Belgium Paul Stroobants, it was extremely close in the semi-finals against the American Sang Chun Lee . Lee won the first two sets. But then the Swede switched on the turbo and won sets three to five in a total of 21 shots. The final against Semih Saygıner turned out to be a clear affair with 3: 1 sets. Former champion Raymond Ceulemans was able to secure a place on the podium with third place. The tournament went optimally for Blomdahl, as his opponents took each other's points for the overall World Cup victory. With his victory he took the lead again in this ranking.
The exact price money could not be determined from the documents. However, as in all BWA World Cup tournaments, it was at least 100,000 DM.
The World Cup tournament was played as an open tournament again. From a pre-qualification with a maximum of 124 participants, ten participants qualify for the 1/16 finals. The main tournament is played with 28 participants. The first four of the world rankings are set for the round of 16. In future, 20 participants are set. The participants are recruited from the best 14 players in the world rankings (as of September 1, 1995) as well as two national and international wildcards. The whole tournament, with the exception of the small final, is played in the knockout system with three sets of 15 points each. (Press release by BWA.Ghent, January 8, 1994.)
From 1995 onwards, no more qualifying tournaments were held.
Final round
The tournament tree for the final round is listed below.
The three-cushion World Cup was organized by the founding association, the " Billiards Worldcup Association " (BWA) until 1998 . Disputes between the BWA and the world association Union Mondiale de Billard (UMB) led to parallel tournaments between 1994 and 1997. The UMB / BWA organized the tournament together until the beginning of 1999. Since the dissolution of the BWA in 1999, the UMB has been the sole organizer. From 1988-1991 the UMB did not host any world championships. During this time, the annual overall winner of the World Cup was crowned world champion.