European Champions Emerging

Marcus Chamat

The European Championships is now in mid-stride and some of the disciplines have had their champions recognized.  The Men's 8-Ball division was won by Marcus Chamat. Chamat gave the fans a family moment when he hung his gold medal around the neck of his young son. Chamat claimed the gold by defeating Serbian Zoran Svilar 8-3.  Thorsten Hohmann was the bronze medalist in this division. It appears that the schedule of play may be somewhat tiring from the remarks of Ralf Souquet who, after his loss to Darren Appleton earlier in the day, said: “I did not even have the power anymore to be nervous; I was just finished."

The ladies 8-Ball Champion for 2008 is Sylvia Buschhueter. Ms. Buschhueter defeated Brigitte Ganze 5-2 to own her gold after a very tough final road that found her having to get past a determined Pla Vahasoyrinki which she did 5-3 to gain her berth in the finals. Her opponent there, Brigitte Ganze, had to force Birgit Reimann to settle for Bronze (5-2) in order to earn the honor of the final match.

The new Senior 8-Ball Champion is Holger Gries.  This popular German bested Manuel Pereira of Portugal 7-3 to find his gold.  Finally, Jasmin Ouschan has continued her fine play by taking, almost as expected, the gold medal in the Women's 8-Ball division. She dusted Line Kjorsvik 7-2 in the final. We must admit to some confusion here. The European Championships has 8-Ball divisions tiled “Girls”, “Ladies”, and “Women”. What is the difference between a lady and a woman? We are not sure but for now will venture the guess that ladies are amateurs and women are pros. We will clue you in as soon as we know for sure.

We will post more results as they are sent to us by the EC press officer.

Photo courtesy of Helga Ackermann, Miltenberg, GER