Pool
The 10-ball discipline at the Dynamic Billard European Championships 2019 is over and the medals have been awarded.
In the men’s division, Mieszko Fortunski (POL) won the title after a fierce fight with Casper Matikainen (FIN) in the final match. Matikainen had the better start and stormed off with a 3:0 lead over Fortunski. The Finish played pretty confident and displayed no weakness until that stage in the match. Then suddenly he started committing mistakes. Fortunski capitalized from them and gained strength from his opponent’s errors. Then, Matikainen was also very unlucky with his break. While it worked pretty well in the beginning, it did let him down during the match. He scratched three times in a row on his own break shot and it could be witnessed how his confidence left him and he had no trust in himself anymore. Fortunski got stronger and stronger and in the end succeeded in sealing the deal with a comfortable 8:4 victory over Matikainen.
Top 8 Men
1. Mieszko Fortunski POL
2. Casper Matikainen FIN
3. Thorsten Hohmann GER
Joao Grilo POR
5. Pijus Labutis LTU
Fabio Rizzi FRA
Tomasz Kaplan POL
Mariusz Skoneczny POL
In the women’s division, Christine Feldmann (SUI) surprisingly took the title against highly favoured Kristina Tkach (SUI) with 6:3. Feldmann had performed outstandingly throughout the discipline so far and rightfully booked her seat in the final match, winning 6:3 over Tamara Peeters-Rademakers (NED) in the semi-final. Tkach ousted Jasmin Ouschan (AUT) 6:5 in the same round in a monster clash. Tkach was highly favoured for the title but Feldmann simply played better and kept her nerves together. The final match was not even close with Feldmann dominating it throughout the whole course of the match. In the end, Feldmann won her third European title after winning 1993 in the girl’s 9-ball division and 2005 in the women’s 8-ball.
Top 8 Women
1. Christine Feldmann SUI
2. Kristina Tkach RUS
3. Jasmin Ouschan AUT
Tamara Peeters-Rademakers NED
5. Jessika Nilsson SWE
Veronika Ivanovskaia GER
Marharyta Fefilava BLR
Kristina Zlateva BUL
In the wheelchair division, there was one new face in the final match. Kaspars Turks (LAT) had to play against multiple Champion Henrik Larsson (SWE). Being in the final was already a huge achievement for Turks. He ousted favoured Fred Dinsmore (IRL) in the semi-final match and wass ready for more against Larsson. But the Swede is very experienced with many titles underneath his belt already. After having defeated his biggest rival, defending Champion Jouni Tahti (FIN) in the quarter-final already, Larsson did not want to allow anyone to take that medal away from him anymore. So the match turned pretty much into a one-man-show from Henrik Larsson. The Swede pulled rack after rack from Turks and managed to win the title with a clear 6:1 result over Turks.
Top 8 Wheelchair
1. Henrik Larsson SWE
2. Kaspars Turks LAT
3. Tony Southern GBR
Fred Dinsmore IRL
5. Jouni Tahti FIN
Roy Kimberley GBR
Emil Malanowski POL
Kim-Ronny Nygard NOR
The medal table displays a clear lead for Poland, having won both Gold Medals in the men’s division so far.
The Dynamic Billard European Championships 2019 for men, women, U23 and wheelchair athletes will commence tomorrow morning at 09:00 CET with matches in the 8-ball individuals competition Men and Under 23.
The Championships are played on 24 tables which are all streamed LIVE throughout the whole event. In order to be able to follow all the action LIVE, premium membership can be obtained 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 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 visit us on Facebook for regular news clips or contact our press office press@epbf.com.