Today the individual competitions in 5-Pins and in 3-Cushion of the U25 ended at the European Billiards Championships in Antalya/Turkey.
5-Pins:
The new European Champion in 5-Pins is Andrea Quarta from Italy, who won the continental championship after his World Championship title last year. In the final against his compatriot Paolo Marcolin the match went the full distance.
But it didn't look like that at first, because Quarta won the first two sets with 60:39 and 60:33. Quarta also had chances to win in the third set, but didn't manage to close the bag.
So Marcolin came back to 1:2 with a 60:59-win and secured the fourth set a little later with 60:43. Now it was time for the deciding set and Quarta played at his best again. This was already evident in the previous matches.
Whenever things got tight, the Italian switched up a gear or even two. It was the same this time and with a safe 60:35 Andrea Quarta won the European title in 5-Pins.
In the semifinals, the defending champion Michelangelo Aniello (Italy) and the Dane Rune Kampe had previously failed. While Aniello was certainly disappointed after his narrow 2:3 defeat against the future European champion, Rune Kampe has reason to celebrate tonight.
His bronze medal can definitely be considered a surprise. Likewise, it puts the Danish team in the role of first runner-up in the team competition that now follows. Finally, Erling Sjörup finished fifth and last year's European runner-up Kasper Kristoffersen was eliminated in the round of 16 and thus finished ninth.
3-Cushion U25:
A week after winning the Next Generation tournament in Italy, Burak Hashas from Turkey also won the European Championship. The final against Nikolaus Kogelbauer from Austria was a one-sided affair for a long time. Already at the 5-minute break Hashas was leading with 21:9 points and extended this lead in the second part of the final.
Finally, the young Turkish finished the game with a small run of four points and crowned himself the new European Champion with a final score of 40:20.
The two third places were shared by Alessio D'Agata from Italy and Seymen Ozbas from Turkey. D'Agata fought a duel on equal terms with Burak Hashas and could also have emerged victorious in the 38:40 defeat.
Balkline 47/2:
In Balkline 47/2, the group phase was played today. Only the winner of each of the eight groups qualified for the quarterfinals, so no sportsman was allowed to slip up. The defending champion is Raymund Swertz from the Netherlands and he lived up to his role as favourite with two clear victories today.
Benoit Legros (France) and Belgian Patrick Niessen also played outstandingly and secured their place in tomorrow's final round. Germany's Sven Daske fought his way back into the match after trailing badly against Micha van Bochem (Netherlands) and ultimately a 200-200 draw was enough for him to reach the quarterfinals.
Artistic:
In the spectacular Artistic tournament, the participants of tomorrow's quarterfinals have been announced. Haci Arap Yaman (Turkey), who had already convinced in the group phase, did not give a chance to Austria's Manfred Hekerle in his round of 16 match today.
More exciting was the match between the two Frenchmen Kevin Tran and Jean Reverchon, which was decided in favor of Reverchon. It was similar in the all-Spanish duel between Xavier Fonellosa and Sergio Sanchez, which the latter won with 115:109 points.
With Marvin Heinrich and Thomas Ahrens, two Germans are also represented. They impressively proved that they want to have a say in the medal decision in the newly founded team competition which will start on Wednesday.
Women's 3-Cushion:
In the Women's 3-Cushion competition on the match table, the participants of the round of 16 were determined today. A total of 24 players competed in eight groups, with the first two in each group advancing to the final round.
As expected, Therese Klompenhouwer is in the top position after the group stage. The Dutchwoman was considered the top favourite and has fully lived up to this role so far. First pursuer is the Belgian Jaimie Buelens, but also Charlotte Sörensen (Denmark), as well as the two Turkish players Gülsen Degener and Guzin Mujde Karakasli are definitely to be watched.
Men's 3-Cushion Small Table:
Meanwhile, the group phase is underway in Men's 3-Cushion on the small table. A total of 26 athletes are spread over six groups, with only the group winner in each case certain to reach the quarterfinals. Not many matches have been played so far, the medal decisions in this discipline will not be made until Thursday.
The entire event can be followed in the paid livestream on tv.kozoom.com. Each of the 20 tables will be shown.
All results, schedules, daily press releases, photos and further information about the event can be found on the official media page.
You are welcome to use this press release for republication with a source attribution to "CEB | Billard1.net".
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