“The Tornado” loses to strong Piekarski

Mar 21, 2012

Dynamic European Championships opened with straight pool matches
In a furious match, Konrad Piekarski (POL) defeated “The Tornado” Tony Drago with 100:85 in 49 minutes!
The writing was on the wall that the match would not be a slow one. Drago is known to be one of the fastest players in pool- billiards, if not the fastest. His opponent, 18-year old Piekarski, has just come out of the juniors division which is also known to play quick. But this match was on fire! Piekarski started with a 27:1 lead over Drago. Then Drago answered and shot 60 balls in 15 minutes! Piekarski tried to catch up but was only able to get to 40 balls before Drago returned to the table, playing another 12 balls into his account. Then Piekarski turned the tide in the match and managed to overtake Drago, taking an 83 to 72 lead in the match. When Drago returned to the table at that score, he found an open table for him. He pocketed all balls and got a bit too straight on his next break ball, leading now 85:83. Instead of playing safety, Drago chose to try and fire the break ball in but he missed it by quite a bit. All balls were open now for Piekarski and Drago had to go sit in his chair while his young Polish opponent pocketed ball after ball. Though he did not play ideally, he still managed to pocket ball after ball and came up with a reasonable break ball in the end. He fired that one in and ended up winning the match with 100:85. Drago will go to the loser’s side of the draw now. He still has one chance to stay in the straight pool competition.
Other notable results include Stephan Cohen (FRA) winning 100:72 over Klaus Zobrekis (GER). Zoran Svilar (SRB) executed Mario He (AUT) in one inning, winning 100:0. He’s fellow countryman Albin Ouschan (AUT) ended Manuel Gama’s (POR) winner’s round experience with the same result, also in one inning. In the women’s division, Katarzyna Wesolowska (POL) defeated Yulia Yevseyenko (UKR) with 75:4. 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, follow us on twitter @EPBF_News or contact our press office.