Team Russia and Poland win Gold
Apr 18, 2015
The team competition has come to an end at the Dynamic Billard European Championships for Men, Women and Wheelchair Athletes.
In the men's team, Poland with Karol Skowerski, Tomasz Kaplan, Mariusz Skoneczny and Mieszko Fortunski won the Gold Medal over team The Netherlands. The final match was a tough fight. The Netherlands took an early lead with Nick van den Berg winning the 9-ball 9:3 over Mariusz Skoneczny. Then, Tomasz Kaplan leveled the match in defeating Ivo Aarts with 8:4 in 8-ball. The 10-ball match between Karol Skowerski and Niels Feijen was close, but Skowerski had always a small lead. At 7:5 for Skowerski, Feijen tried to bank the 1-ball in. He pocketed the 1-ball but hit it too straight. The cue ball scratched. Then, Skowerski took the chance and ran out with ball in hand, winning the 10-ball with 8:5 and the team match with 2:1.
Team Men
Poland
The Netherlands
AustriaGermany
In the women's team, the Russian women with Kristina Tkach, Daria Sirotina and Ana Mazhirina were the Gold Medallists. The final match with Norway was pretty close. While Mazhirina could win her 8-ball over Line Kjoersvik relatively easy with 6:3, Martine Christiansen was leading in 9-ball over Tkach throughout the match. Christiansen had even a 5:1 lead over Tkach in a race to 7. But Tkach showed strength while Christiansen showed nerves. At 6:6, Christiansen was at the table with two more balls to go. She dramatically missed the 8-ball and the chance to go into the shootout with the Russians. Tkach ran out and won the team match with 2:0.
Medal Table after 3 of 5 events:
Rank
Nation
Gold
Silver
Bronze
Total
1.
The Netherlands
1
2
2
5
2.
Belgium
1
2
1
4
3.
Austria
1
1
1
3
4.
Finland
1
1
2
Poland
1
1
2
6.
Greece
1
1
Russia
1
1
8
Spain
1
1
2
9.
Norway
1
1
10.
Belarus
1
1
Germany
1
1
Great Britain
1
1
Ireland
1
1
Italy
1
1
Sweden
1
1
Switzerland
1
1
Earlier today in the 8-ball individuals, several interesting as well as unexpected results occurred. In the women's division, Jasmin Ouschan (AUT) had a tough match with Tamara Peeters-Rademakers (NED) on the loser's side. Ouschan lost to Kristina Tkach (RUS) yesterday. Against Peeters-Rademakers, the score was 4:4 after 8 racks. The Dutch player broke and scratched very unfortunate on the break shot. What she did not know at that time, was that it was her last visit for the match. Ouschan broke and ran for a 5:4 lead. Then, she had her own break shot coming up which she perfectly used and scored another point for her account. That victory brought her the 6:4 final match result against Peeters-Rademakers.
Defending Champion in the women's division, Daria Sirotina (RUS) is already out of the 8-ball. Yesterday, she lost 5:6 to totally unheralded Laura Frances (ESP). Today, she could not find any weapon against Diana Khodjaeva (BEL) and lost again 4:6.
In the men's division, the tournament was already down to the single elimination stage of the final 64 players today. Defending Champion Nick van den Berg (NED) is still in, winning 8:1 over Michal Hajduch (SVK). He will play Francisco-Diaz (ESP) in the next round. Nick Ekonomopoulos (GRE) has suffered a shattering defeat. He lost 7:8 to Tomas Larsson (SWE). Another shattering defeat was handed to David Alcaide (ESP). The sender was Ruslan Chinakhov (RUS) who won the match with Alcaide 8:6. BCA Hall of Famer Ralf Souquet (GER) eliminated Christian Sparrenloev-Fischer (SWE) 8:5 and will now play Albin Ouschan (AUT) who sneaked past Andreas Roschkowsky (GER) with 8:7.
In the wheelchair division, only a few 8-ball matches were played today. Jouni Tahti (FIN) lost the winner's qualification round match to Tony Southern (GBR) with 4:5. Southern is the first semi-finalist in the wheelchair division. He is joined by Kurt Deklerck (BEL) who won 5:3 over Roy Kimberley (GBR).
The tournament will continue tomorrow at 09:00 local time with men's and women's 8-ball matches. The final matches in 8-ball in all three divisions will be played at 20:00 local time.
All matches can be viewed LIVE at www.kozoom.com. 24 tables in HiRes quality are providing you with all the action of the event. You do not miss out one single match! Join today!
More information about participants, schedules, achievements, rankings, etc can be found on the event website www.epconline.eu.
The event will be hosted by the European Pocket Billiard Federation EPBF and organized by International Billiard Promotion Foundation IBPF.