The three- cushion world cup 1997/3 was the third UMB world cup tournament in the twelfth year of the three-cushion world cup. The tournament took place from March 27th to 30th, 1997 in this discipline of carom billiards in Porto . It was the third three-cushion World Cup tournament in Portugal.
For the third time, a three-cushion World Cup tournament was held in the Portuguese port city. For the second time, the winner was Dion Nelin. The young Dane, who is getting stronger and stronger, made his way into the final with some excellent performances against world number two Daniel Sánchez from Spain. Nelin prevailed 3-2 sets against opponents who had been in various junior championships several times in the past and improved to second place in the new world rankings. Third place went to Belgian Eddy Leppens and 26-year-old Stefan Galla from Gelsenkirchen. Galla is playing his best World Cup year to date. It was his second podium in a row after Salsomaggiore Terme. In the current world rankings, he improved to eighth place. That is his highest ranking. On his way to the semi-finals, he defeated, among others, Jorge Theriaga from Portugal, who was third in the world rankings.
For the other German participants, the tournament was mixed. Martin Horn reached the round of 16. Here, after his 3-0 win in the first round against the Greek George Sakkas, he was defeated by the Danish veteran Hans Laursen by 2: 3 sets. The tournament was disappointing for the current world champion and world number one Christian Rudolph . After a rather mediocre performance in his 3-0 first round win against the Portuguese Manuel Rio, an increase in performance against Leppens in the 2-3 set defeat was not enough to progress. Another two German participants took part in the tournament. After successfully qualifying, Rainer Neff made it into the last 32 participants. For Orhan Erogul, the tournament was over after having passed the pre-qualification in the qualification.
The exact price money could not be determined from the documents.
Tournament mode
In the qualifying round in groups, two sets of 15 points each are played in round robin mode. The group winners qualify for the 1/16 finals. There are also 16 seeded players. From the main competition (1/16 final), all games are played on three sets of 15 points each. Third place has not been played since the 1996/97 season. This means that there is no game for third place and there are two third-placed players.
In the event of a tie, the following order will be applied:
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.