3-Cushion
SAINT DIZIER - The spectators in the room and viewers on Kozoom witnessed a wonderful French three-cushion championship for juniors this weekend. The tournament was organized by the Club of Saint Dizier. Matthieu Franck and Gwendal Maréchal played the final.
The tension was on when Gwendal Maréchal came close to the finish 28-19 in 23 innings. But then Matthieu Franck attacked in the thrilling final sprint with successive runs of three, two and six to the winning 30 points. The junior world champion, Adrien Tachoire, was already eliminated in the quarters.
The small Breton Gwendal Maréchal still had chances to equalize in the final but missed his last carom. As a result, the title went to Matthieu Franck. The champion already shone with an extraordinary finish in the quarterfinal against Espada Thibaut when he ran five and ten. The strong performance was repeated with the eleven points in three innings in the final match.
The overall average of the winner was 1.060, the other matches were: wins against Guillaume Rouby (1.086), Thibaut Espada (0.781), another against Thibaut Espada, 1.111 and Jean Haby in the semifinals 1.250.
17-year-old Gwendal Maréchal achieved an excellent performance. The Breton only made a small misstep in the final phase when he had the win for grab. The young guy finished 1.168 average, with five games all between 1.000 and 1.667.
Alexis Rouaud (Francoville) was hoping for a strong performance in his final year as a junior. He lost in the semifinals to Maréchal.
The second bronze medal goes to Jean Haby, who delivered an exceptional performance: he defeated the reigning world champion Adrien Tachoire twice in a row: after his 25-17 score in 22 in the preliminaries, Haby knocked out the world champion in the quarterfinals.
The losers of the quarterfinals are, in order of ranking, Thibaut Espada (0.747), Pierre Bibaut (1.047), Adrien Tachoire (0.933) and finally Fabio Rizzi (0.605).