South Koreans take gold at HCMC Billiards Open

Choi Sung Won and Lim Leng of South Korea won gold medals at the second International Billiards Club Open that ended in Ho Chi Minh City Friday.

Choi Sung Won beat Vietnam’s Ma Minh Cam 3-0 in the final of the three-cushion carom event while compatriot Lim Leng topped the nine-ball pool contest with a 9-7 win over Vu Trong Khai of Vietnam.

In the semifinals of the nine-ball pool event, Leng had beaten Vietnam’s Tran Minh Thanh 9-4 while Trong Khai defeated compatriot Tat Duy Kien 9-1.

In the semifinals of the three-cushion carom competition, Minh Cam came back from behind to beat compatriot Ma Xuan Cuong 3-2 while 13th-ranked Choi Sung Won managed a similar comeback for a 3-2 win over compatriot Kang Dong Gung, ranked 28th in the world.

The event prepared Vietnamese billiards players for more important international events like the 2010 Asian Billiards Championships in South Korea next month, the 2010 World Individual Billiards Championships in the Netherlands in October and the Asian Games in China’s Guangzhou Province in November.