Today there were two victories for the favorites at the European Billiards Championships in Antalya/Turkey.
In the Women's 3-Cushion event, Therese Klompenhouwer of the Netherlands prevailed and in the 5-Pins National Teams, Italy added another gold medal to its long success story.
Women's 3-Cushion:
Therese Klompenhouwer from the Netherlands was considered the declared favorite for the gold medal. In the past, she has often proved that she can handle this pressure very well. This was not to change in Antalya.
The Danish Charlotte Sorensen was able to keep up well in the final, but she did not come close to a surprise. Klompenhouwer finished the match in the 25th inning and secured the European title again with a 30:21-win.
The two Belgians Danielle Le Bruijn and Jaimie Buelens were joint third. Le Bruijn had no chance against Klompenhouwer with 8:30 after 21 innings, while Buelens had to admit defeat against Sorensen with 22:30 after 38 innings.
5-Pins National-Teams:
After less than an hour of play, another European title was decided for the Italian team. After Michelangelo Aniello and Andrea Quarta had clearly won their singles, Achille Mignolo and Paolo Marcolin also won the doubles against their Danish opponents.
After the group matches, Denmark 1 was expected to make it to the final, but they were surprisingly eliminated in the quarterfinal against their own second team. Denmark 2 even continued its winning streak in the semifinals, defeating France 4:1.
The French thus won the bronze medal just like Germany. The Germans balanced their semifinal against Italy at the beginning, but in the final phase of the two singles and the one doubles, the Azzurri pulled away.
Balkline 71/2:
In this tournament, the group phase was completed today, so the quarterfinalists have been determined. A total of twenty athletes were spread over eight groups, with only the first-placed player in each group reaching the round of the last eight.
Still in the running is of course the most mentioned favorite, Raymund Swertz from the Netherlands. He safely prevailed against the European 1-Cushion Champion, Raul Cuenca (Spain). Also qualified is the Czech Balkline 47/2-Winner Marek Faus, who will meet Sven Daske from Germany in his quarterfinal. This will also be a rematch of yesterday's final.
Other qualified athletes are Defending Champion Willy Gerimont from France, Micha van Bochem, Michel van Silfhout (both Netherlands) as well as Esteve Mata (Spain) and Belgian Patrick Niessen.
Artistic National-Teams:
This year, for the first time, an Artistic Team-Event will be held with a total of 12 teams in four groups of three. The top two teams in each group will qualify for the quarterfinals.
In Group A, Germany celebrated a rather laborious win against Austria, but then won through quite securely against the favored French. France also beat Austria to advance to the quarterfinals.
In Group B, meanwhile, France 2 clearly had the upper hand, while the Netherlands 1 beat Hungary in the duel for second place. Turkey 1 and the Netherlands 2 qualified in Group C, while Spain and Belgium held their own in Group D.
3-Cushion Small Table:
After three tournament days, the participants of the two semifinals on Thursday have been determined. Joan Espinasa from Spain will meet Seymen Ozbas from Turkey in the first semifinal. In the second match Mübin Isli (Turkey) and Markus Dömer from Germany will play for the ticket to the final. Abdullah Kaya (Turkey) played the highest run and the best average until the knockout stage, but that did not help him in his quarterfinal against Dömer. He lost to the German with 34:40 after twenty innings.
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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