3-Cushion
BARLETTA - In the city of Barletta, belonging to the Puglia region, the Italian three cushion top played the national championships. Marco Zanetti won his 28th title in the Congress room of the Itaca hotel, where 80 players joined the tournament from the pre-qualifications. The format was similar to the World Cups. In the last rounds, 32 best players from all over Italy played in groups of 4, leading up to the knock-out with 16 players.
Marco Zanetti won all his matches: his average in the preliminaries to 30 points was 1,698 with his best match in 11 innings. In the last 16, the champion defeated Andrea Bitetti (40-29 in 30), in the last 8 he won 40-19 in 20, in the semi-final and finals the show began: Marco outclassed Antonio Oddo (born in 1939) 40-10 in 12 with a high run of 12. And in the final against Michele Notarrigo, he recorded the same score, 40-10 in 13 with an amazing high run of 19.
In the same days, young sportsmen played the U21 national championship. Alessio D'Agata won his 5th national title in the final against his friend Emanuele Criscino, 25-23 in 26 innings. The national championship for teams of two sportsmen played in the Scotch double format was won by the team composed by Libero Picciano and Fabrizio Cortese against the local team Michele Matera and Michele Di Tacchio: 30 to 22 in 40 innings.
The final ranking:
1 Marco Zanetti 14-1,953-19
2 Michele Notarrigo 12-0,829-8
3 Domenico Giacalone 10-0,784-7
4 Antonio Oddo 8-0,861-9
5 Giuseppe Magnano 8-0,735-10
6 Fabrizio Cortese 6-0,952-6
7 Pippo Criscino 6-0,739-6
8 Antonio Spica 6-0,643-6
9 Alessio D'Agata 6-0,859-7
10 Gabriele Fasciana 6-0,846-7.
The four finalists with Marco Zanetti (left) and 80 year old Antonio Oddo (second right)
The under 21 players for the final match