Since Mexico had to cancel, Germany moved into the tournament with a second team. Greece also canceled at very short notice. As a result, last year's third Korea provided a second team. For the first time Finland took part in a team world championship.
Next nation according to world rankings (here: Korea)Korea South
Since 2013, the sentence system has not been used any more, but 40 points. As long as there is still a possible draw in the match, the game will be played with a kick during the entire tournament . Then the last pairing that ended the game plays overtime. From the knockout round, the second game is canceled if, after the end of the first game, a team is unassailable in the lead. Third place has not been played out since 2004. There are two bronze medals. The time limit is 40 seconds per shot. An extension of 40 seconds is possible per game . The ranking is determined as follows:
The 28th edition of this world championship started with an absolute blast. In the first round on Thursday the defending champion Belgium set a sensational world record. Eddy Merckx and Frédéric Caudron achieved 80 points in just 22 shots . That was a new world record in the best team average (BMDS) with 3,636 . The Belgians pulverized the old record of 2.678 the Swedes from 2009. In addition, Eddy Merckx achieved the best individual average (BED) at a team World Cup with 4,444 (40 points in 9 shots). Otherwise there were no big surprises on Thursday. It was bad luck for the Austrians that they were drawn into an extremely strong group with Belgium B and Sweden. So the first day of the tournament was also the last day for them.
The second day of the tournament began with a surprising defeat for Turkey against Japan. Germany A started the tournament with an unexpected draw against the Czech Republic, although Martin Horn's defeat against the Czech Martin Boháč can be seen as a sensation. In the very strong group H there was a showdown for one team on the second day. Despite a great performance by Torbjörn Blomdahl , he won against Eddy Merckx with 40:23 in 14 shots, the record world champion already ended in the group phase. The fantastic world record set by Belgium was the decisive factor in the final account with a tie for match and game points due to the better team average. The strong playing Danes sent France on their way home. Group E was extremely exciting. All teams had the same number of match and game points. The group won the Turks with the best average.
Germany B started on Saturday with a surprising win against the favored Spaniards and secured group victory. In the end, a draw against Egypt was enough for Germany A to advance. A class performance with two series of 10 by Stefan Galla was already enough for advancement. For Martin Horn there was already the second defeat in the tournament against the strong Egyptian Sameh Sidhom . Sidhom was playing the tournament of his life. He missed the magical GD limit of 2 by just one shot. Furthermore, the favored teams Belgium A and Korea A qualified for the final round. Thus, in the knockout round, Germany A against Germany B and Belgium A against Belgium B.
The final round began with a sure win for Belgium B against Belgium A. In the second game it was much more exciting. The Dane Tonny Carlsen started very well and led 20-2 in 8 shots. Tayfun Taşdemir fought his way up ball by ball. After 34 shots, the game ended in a 40:40 draw. At the same time, Tolgahan Kiraz finished a match 40:34. Michael Lohse still had the second push. He managed the six points to tie. So it was extended. Kiraz started with 5 points. Lohse missed the starting ball, so the Turks were in the semi-finals. In the next round, Martin Horn confirmed his top position in German three-cushion billiards. He defeated Thorsten Frings with 40:16 in 24 shots. The other game was canceled when Ronny Lindemann was at 35:20 because a tie was no longer possible. In a parallel match, the Netherlands won against Korea A.
The semi-final Germany A against the Netherlands was very competitive. Stefan Galla started furiously and after 12 shots led 26: 8. At the next table it was exactly the other way around. Dick Jaspers was clearly leading 22: 6 in 9 shots. The Dutchman Barry van Beers slowly came into play and narrowed the gap to Galla. Martin Horn also slowly found his form and came closer to Jaspers with a 9 series. He also managed a series of 7s. But Jaspers ended the game on the 20th recording. Unfortunately, Horn only managed one point in the follow-up. Thus, the game was canceled by Galla, as the Dutch led unassailable. In the other match Belgium B got into trouble for the first time. The strong playing Tayfun Taşdemir beat Eddy Merckx with 40:34 in 17 shots. At the next table, however, the current world champion Frédéric Caudron managed a 40:33 victory after a temporary deficit in a rather mediocre 28 shots. The Turk Kiraz still had the second push. He needed four points for the final. But since he only managed two, the defending champions moved happily into the final with one point more. It was a pretty one-sided affair then. Caudron beat van Beers with 40:19 in 16 shots. Since Merckx already had more than 19 points, his game was canceled and Belgium became world champions for the third time in a row with the new world record team average (MGD) of 2,195 .
Belgium
Netherlands
Denmark