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Ouschan, Tahti and Uski New 8-ball Champions
The 8-ball tiles at the Dynamic Billard European Championships for Men, Women and Wheelchair Athletes in the Salgados Palace Hotel in Albufeira, Portugal, have been awarded. Jouni Tahti (FIN), Jasmin Ouschan (AUT) and Jani Uski (FIN) have snatched the coveted titles in the 8-ball individuals.
In the men’s division, Jani Uski started out as an underdog in the discipline. His victims on the way into the final match include Denis Grabe (EST) 8:5, Francisco Diaz-Pizarro (ESP) 10:6 and Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz (ESP) 10:8. These victories took him into the final match against Marc Bijsterbosch (NED) who had already taken the 10-ball title earlier this week. Bijsterbosch made his way into the final match over Jakub Koniar (SVK) 8:7, Ruslan Chinakhov 10:8 and Mario He (AUT) 10:7. The final match itself was determined by careful play from both actors. Uski however was always a margin up over Bijsterbosch and carried that advantage all through the match. In the end, Uski won his first title in defeating Bijsterbosch 10:7 in the final match.
Top 8 Men:
1. Jani Uski (FIN)
2. Marc Bijsterbosch (NED)
3. Mario He (AUT)
Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz
5. Mieszko Fortunski (POL)
Francisco Diaz-Pizarro (ESP)
Maksim Dudanets (RUS)
Ruslan Chinakhov (RUS)
In the women’s division, Jasmin Ouschan received her 25th Gold Medal on European level and her 50th medal from the EPBF by winning the 8-ball title today. She had a hard time in the semi-final when she just made it over Tamara Peeters-Rademakers (NED) with 7:6. Her opponent in the final match was Melanie Suessenguth (GER). The German had defeated Amalia Matas (ESP) the round before and met Ouschan in the final. However, in the final Suessenguth had no more energy to oppose to Ouschan. 7:0 was the very clear result in favour of the Austrian superstar.
Top 8 Women:
1. Jasmin Ouschan (AUT)
2. Melanie Suessenguth (GER)
3. Tamara Peeters-Rademakers (NED)
Amalia Matas (ESP)
5. Vivien Schade (GER)
Marharyta Fefilava (BLR)
Sara Rocha (POR)
Kristina Schagan (GER)
In the wheelchair division, Jouni Tahti was definitely one of the favourite players from the start. Having had a bad start in 10-ball, Tahti was hungry for another title. He met Kurt Deklerck in the final match. Deklerck already won the 10-ball event earlier this week and still had some wind underneath his wings. The final match was packed with action and drama fro both players with Tahti having the better end on his side, winning the match and the title with 5:3 over Deklerck.
Top 8 Wheelchair:
1. Jouni Tahti (FIN)
2. Kurt Deklerck (BEL)
3. Roy Kimberley (GBR)
Tony Southern (GBR)
5. Emil Malanowski (POL)
Fred Dinsmore (IRL)
7. Matt Duffy (GBR)
David Humpe (BEL)
Medal table after 3 of 5 events:
Earlier today, two rounds of team competition were played at the Dynamic Billard European Championships for Men, Women and Wheelchair Athletes in the Salgados Palace Hotel in Albufeira, Portugal. In the men’s division, Team Croatia came up with the biggest surprise of the day. The clearly defeated the defending Champion Team Germany with 2:0. Ivica Putnik slammed Ralf Souquet 9:5 in 9-ball while Roberto Bartol just made it over Sebastian Ludwig with 8:7 in 10-ball. The third match between Tomislav Susic and Sebastian Staab in 8-ball was held up at 7:6 for Staab since the Croatians had already won the match being 2:0 up. Another huge surprise was brought to the tournament by Team Finland. They managed to triumph over Team Spain, consisting of Jose Alberto Delgado Hernandez, Francisco Sanchez Ruiz and David Alcaide, with 2:1. In 8-ball, Jani Uski wiped the floor with Francisco Sanchez Ruiz 8:1 while Kim Laaksonen stood tall over David Alcaide in 9-ball with 9:7. At that time, Petri Makkonen was also leading 7:5 over Delgado in 10-ball, race to 8. The team clash between Austria and The Netherlands was won by Team Austria today. Though Niels Feijen defeated Albin Ouschan 8:3 in 10-ball, the Austrians left the venue as the winner today. Mario He overpowered Ivar Saris in 8-ball 8:6 while Maximilian Lechner clearly remained the upper hand over Nick Van Den Berg in 9-ball with 9:5.
In the women’s team competition, Team The Netherlands won 2:0 over Team Finland and Team Spain defeated Team Portugal with the same result.
Tomorrow, the tournament will continue at 09:00 GMT with matches from the 9-ball individuals competition.
Every day, one match from the events will be shown LIVE on the Facebook page of the EPBF. All Facebook users may check out the high standard of quality which is provided for all the events and see what the Kozoom members receive all the time. You can see all the matches live via www.kozoom.com who stream the whole event on 24 tables on the internet LIVE. The FB live matches are announced on the EPBF Facebook page around noon every day. Results and schedule can be found at www.europeanpoolchampionships.
The event is hosted by the European Governing Body for Pool, the European Pocket Billiard Federation (EPBF) and organized by International Billiard Promotion (IBP). For further information and reference please go to the federation website www.epbf.com, visit us on Facebook or check out our youtube channel for regular news clips or contact our press office press@epbf.com.
Kaplan Takes Title at Dynamic Billard Italian Women Open
The winner of the Dynamic Billard Italian Women Open is Ina Kaplan from Germany. She defeated Jasmin Ouschan (AUT) in an intense final match with 7:4.
The event could not have started worse for Kaplan. She met her teammate Kristina Schagan (GER) in her first match of the tournament with 1:7. What a disaster for her! She had to go straight to the loser’s side of the event. There, she suddenly found her rhythm back and rode the winning wave over Ine Helvik (NOR) 7:5, Barbara Bolfelli (ITA) 7:6 and Elise Qiu (NED) with 7:4. These victories brought her back to the single elimination round of the last 16 players. Looking at the draw, Kaplan had mountains to climb. Forst she dealt with Kateryna Polovinchul (UKR) 7:3, then she surprisingly ousted Russian top player Kristina Tkach (RUS) 7:3 and overcame her teammate Veronika Ivanovskaia (GER) 7:4 in the semifinal. In the final match she met European legend Jasmin Ouschan. Ouschan has also paid a visit to the loser’s side in this event. After winning over Veronika Ivanovskaia in her first match 7:2, she fell to Sara Rocha (POR) 6:7 and had to go to the loser’s side. There she wasted no time with Christine Steinlage (GER) and whitewashed her 7:0. Being in the single elimination stage, Ouschan eliminated Kristina Grim (GER) 7:0, after a tough fight Vanja Franco (POR) 7:5 and Katarzyna Wesolowska (POL) in the semi-final with 7:2. The final match was all set up and the odds were all in favour of Ouschan. The Austrian had clearer results and seemed to be too much of an obstacle for Kaplan. However, things did not turn out as expected. Two things went against the expectations. Firstly, Ouschan committed several unnecessary errors in the final match which is quite unusual for the perfectionist from Klagenfurt, Austria. Secondly, Kaplan played quite strong and solid and seemed to be of a stronger will to win this final than her opponent. Both of these facts led to the result of 7:4 in favour of Kaplan who is a well-deserved winner of the Dynamic Billard Italian Women Open 2017.
Final Eight Dynamic Billard Italian Women Open
1. Ina Kaplan (GER)
2. Jasmin Ouschan (AUT)
3. Veronika Ivanovskaia (GER)
Katarzyna Wesolowska (POL)
5. Kristina Tkach (RUS)
Kristina Schagan (GER)
Melanie Suessenguth (GER)
Vania Franco (POR)
This concludes the coverage from Treviso, Italy. The next EPBF event will be the Dynamic Billard European Championships for Men, Women and Wheelchair Athletes in Albufeira, Portugal, starting on March 18th, 2017.
The Euro-Tour was played on 20 tables which were all streamed LIVE throughout the whole event. In order to be able to follow all the action LIVE, premium membership can be purchased at www.kozoom.com. Once a premium membership is held, all events for the respective period of time can be viewed LIVE. Additionally, a huge video gallery is contained in the website.
The event was hosted by the European Governing Body for Pool, the European Pocket Billiard Federation (EPBF) and organized by International Billiard Promotion (IBP). For further information and reference please go to the federation website www.eurotouronline.com, visit us on Facebook or check out our youtube channel for regular news clips or contact our press office press@epbf.com.
Fisher Rises From The Depths
Facing sudden elimination on Day 1, Great Britain's Kelly Fisher shows Austria's Jasmin Ouschan the door and survives to play another day at the Women's World 9-ball Championship
Kelly Fisher has been around professional pool long enough to know that sometimes in this sport, as in life, you have to go through hell to get to heaven.
Grabe Takes Second in a Row
Denis Grabe (EST) has just won the Dynamic Billard Slovenian Open Euro-Tour event in Portoroz, Slovenia. He defeated Marc Bijsterbosch (NED) with a clear 9:4 result.
Grabe took his first Euro-Tour title ever at the last Euro-Tour in St. Johann, Austria. Already there he defeated bis names like current 9-ball World Champion Niels Feijen (NED). Here again, Grabe got the better of players like Karl Boyes (GBR) 9:4, Albin Ouschan (AUT) 9:3, Marcus Chamat (SWE) 9:3 and in the final up and coming young Dutch player Marc Bijsterbosch (NED) 9:4. „I think I am really on a roll at the moment“, stated Grabe after the final match. „The victories do not come easy to me at all. They are hard work. But I am very confident at this point in time and I want to make use of it while it lasts“, added Grabe.
It could be witnessed in general at this Euro-Tour event that many young players were doing extremely well. Maybe a new generation is knocking on the door of the established players…
Earlier today, Karl Boyes’ (GBR) journey was cruelly stopped by said Grabe. Boyes managed to defeat BCA Hall of Famer Ralf Souquet (GER) twice yesterday and was full of confidence and good hopes for today. But Grabe put an abrupt end to that. After the match, Boyes and Carlos Cabello (ESP) were randomly drawn for an anti-doping test, conducted by the Slovenian Anti-Doping Association SLOADO.
Also remarkable is the fact that many nations were represented in the final stages of the tournament. In the quarter-finals, eight different nations had a player in the field left. This shows the tight level of competition in Europe as of current.
Final standings:
- Denis Grabe (EST)
- Marc Bijsterbosch (NED)
-
Marcus Chamat (SWE)
Mats Schjetne (NOR) -
Mark Gray (GBR)
Petri Makkonen (FIN)
Radoslaw Babica (POL)
Albin Ouschan (AUT)
The top ten players of the Euro-Tour rankings are now:
- Nick Van Den Berg (NED)
- Niels Feijen (NED)
- Daniele Corrieri (ITA)
- Karol Skowerski (POL)
- Mark Gray (GBR)
- Konstantin Stepanov (RUS)
- Albin Ouschan (AUT)
- Phil Burford (GBR)
- Radoslaw Babica (POL)
- Imran Majid (GBR)
In the women’s division, the favorite players are in the winner’s bracket on their way to the single elimination stage of the event. Jasmin Ouschan (AUT) is playing Sandra Baumgartner (AUT), Oliwia Czuprynska (POL) battles it out with Kristina Schagan (GER), Ana Mazhirina (RUS) and Ine Helvik (NOR) are having a match and Martine Christiansen (NOR) plays against Monica Margeta (SWE) for a seat in the quarterfinals tomorrow. The last match is quite open. The first three matches clearly have heavily favored favorites in Ouschan, Czuprynska and Mazhirina.
The Women’s Euro-Tour Slovenian Open will continue tomorrow morning at 09:00 CET. The final is scheduled for 15:00 CET.
More information about participants, schedules, achievements, rankings, etc can be found on the event website www.eurotouronline.com
The event is hosted by the European Pocket Billiard Federation EPBF and organized by International Billiard Promotion Foundation IBPF.
Major upsets and “business as usual” go hand in hand
Play will commence tomorrow morning 09:00 local time with the 8-ball competition. All results and more info can be found on www.epconline.eu. LIVEStream can be viewed at www.kozoom.com.
The event is hosted by the European Governing Body for Pool, the European Pocket Billiard Federation (EPBF) and organized by International Billiard Promotion (IBP). For further information and reference please go to the federation website www.epconline.eu or contact our press office press@epbf.com.
“Black Widow” Camp announced
The camp, which will be held July 29-31 at Bradford Woods, an educational nature facility in central Indiana, will feature instruction both on and off the table by Lee and a group of professionals like Johnny Archer, Allison Fisher, Nick Varner, Karen Corr, Shane Van Boening, Vivian Villarreal and more.
The Black Widow Junior’s Camp is designed to bridge the gap between accomplished junior players (age 14-18, with intermediate-to-advanced skill) and professionals. Class sessions will be short, designed to hold the interest of the students, allowing for maximum on-table instruction and demonstration. In addition to on-table instruction, campers will be offered short classes on marketing, public relations, nutrition and fitness, and career planning.
The program will feature core curriculum as well as electives, allowing for an experience that can be tailored to the specific needs and interests of individual campers.
The cost is $1,000 per student, which includes instruction, activities, lodging, all meals, snacks, prizes and 24-hour chaperones.
For more information on the Black Widow Junior’s Camp, go to http://blackwidowfoundation.org/, or call 317-455-3381.
About Jeanette Lee
10-Ball titles for Wesolowska, Dinsmore and Alcaide
Defending Champions Van den Berg and Ouschan on their way
The day started rather stormy. The sea which is normally inviting the people for a nice swim was rough and capricious. Maybe that was a presage for today’s straight pool matches. 95 men and 45 women had taken up the challenge to see who will wear the crown in European straight pool in 2014. Defending Champions were Jasmin Ouschan (AUT) and Nick Van Den Berg (NED) and they knew that it will not be an easy task to claim the title again this year.
Van den Berg had a tough opening match against Daniele Corrieri (ITA). The Italian stood out at recent Euro-Tours by always making it to the final stages of the event. So the match was expected to be a tough fight… and it was! Van den Berg made a mistake at 4:0 and allowed Corrieri to enter the table with a clear shot. The Italian thanked him and made 56 balls. Racing to 100 points, that was more than half the points he needed for the victory. Then, van den Berg ran 28 balls but allowed Corrieri again back to the table with a shot. It looked like Corrieri would run the match but he scratched at 74:32 and allowed van den Berg to the table with ball in hand. That was all the Champion needed to send out a signal. He ran the needed 68 balls without allowing Corrieri back to the table. 100:74 was the final result in favor of van den Berg. Corrieri obviously lost too much energy in this match. He lost the next straight match to unheralded Dino Cerimagic (BIH) with 79:100. Van den Berg got Jürgen Jenisy (AUT) in the single elimination round of the final 64 players. Again, things did not look too bright for him in the beginning of the match. In fact, he was trailing 54:99 when Jenisy made a mistake. That brought van den Berg back into the match and woke his killer instinct. He did not allow his opponent any more clear shot in that match; to the contrary, Jenisy only managed to commit two more fouls while van den Berg was able to decide the match in his favor. 125:97 was the final result that puts van den Berg one round further where he will face Aki Heiskanen (FIN) while Jenisy will have to settle for 33rd place.
Niels Feijen (NED), van den Berg’s teammate, did not have a good start. He played Jakub Koniar (SVK) in the winner’s qualification round and was leading 92:78 when he made a mistake. Koniar kept calm and pocketed ball after ball, sending favored Feijen to the one-loss side.
Even BCA Hall of Famer Ralf Souquet (GER) could not get through this day unwounded. He lost to David Alcaide (ESP) with 1:100 with Alcaide running 101 balls on him.
As the tournament went on, more tight matches came around. Nicolas Ottermann (GER) just managed to win over Murat Teker (TUR) with 100:96 and get to the single elimination stage of the final 64 players.
In the single elimination, Albin Ouschan (AUT) set a new record for the event. The race was raised to 125 points. Ouschan used only one (1!) inning to win over Mindaugas Salkauskas (LIT) with 125:0. That was an exclamation mark set by Ouschan. Aki Heiskanen (FIN) ended Chris Melling’s hopes for a straight pool title, eliminating him with 125:50. Another big name fell in the first single elimination round. Ralf Souquet (GER) got ousted by Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz with125:77. However, Sanchez’ journey ended in the next round when he unexpectedly fell to Christian Sparrenloev-Fischer (SWE) with 95:125.
The results in the men’s division prove the high standard of the event. One mistake is very often enough to decide a whole match.
In the women’s division, tight matches could be found very often. Kynthia Orfanidis (NED) had to give her first round match away to Sara Rocha (POR) with 74:75. The same result was final for Ina Kaplan (GER) in her match with Oliwia Czuprynska (POL). Kaplan was leading 74:68, being at the table with a complicated but possible layout. She needed one more ball to win the match. The cue ball was lying in a cluster but a shot at an object ball in the side pocket was possible. Kaplan missed that shot and left an open table for Czuprynska. The young Polish went to the table and pocketed the remaining balls, sending Kaplan to the loser’s side with 75:74. There, Kaplan was able to recover and eliminated Kynthia Orfanidis (NED) with 75:41 from the straight pool competition.
Defending Champion Jasmin Ouschan (AUT) had no mercy with her opponents. She defeated Martine Christiansen (NOR) with 75:53 and then Kristina Schagan (GER) with 75:7 to book her seat in the single elimination field of the last 16 women. She will be joined there by Kamila Khodjaeva (BEL) who won a tough fight over Marika Poikkijoki (FIN) with 75:64 in the loser’s qualification round. Another big name in the round of the final 16 women is Louise Furberg. She won with 75:66 over Anna Mazhirina (RUS), then 75:45 over Zrinka Antonijevic (CRO) and finally 75:37 over Silvia Gaudino (ITA). Line Kjoersvik (NOR), Nataliya Seroshtan (RUS), Ana Gradisnik (SLO) and Katarzyna Wesolowska (POL) complete the names of the women who made it through the winner’s round. The other eight names will be determined after the 09:00 round on Monday, March 31st.
The action will continue tomorrow morning at 09:00 local time.
The event is hosted by the European Governing Body for Pool, the European Pocket Billiard Federation (EPBF) and organized by International Billiard Promotion (IBP). For further information and reference please go to the federation website www.epconline.eu or contact our press office press@epbf.com.