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EPBF Jubilee All-In-One
“Dynamic European Championships 2008”
Sauerland Stern Hotel
Kneippweg 1
34508 Willingen
Germany
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Euro Champs Live Feed - 8 table choices *****

6-17 August 2008

BWPPA Wheelchair player Karl Read wins Gold at the 2008 European Championships.
Photographer (Helga Ackermann, Miltenberg, GER).

THE 2008 EUROPEAN POOL CHAMPIONSHIPS
8-Ball
Wheel Chair
	1st	Karl Read	Great Britain
	2nd	Henrik Larsson	Sweden
	3rd	Jouni Tahti	Finland
	3rd	Tankred Volkmer	Germany

WHEELCHAIR 8-BALL
Thriller in the final
Karl Read (GBR) ahead of Henrik Larsson (SWE)

High quality matches and dramatic decisions characterize the wheelchair competition. Finally, Karl Read has deserved to take the title since he was a bit better than his opponents. The audience was very excited when following the match between Karl Read and Henrik Larsson. In the beginning, the consistent way of Read seemed to put him in the pole position. At the score of 4:2 in favor of Read, everybody thought of him as the winner already. But Larsson fought back and shortened the distance to his opponent to 3:4.

The next match was another tough fight. Read was at the table, having two balls left when he missed. Larsson had the possibility to even the score.

However, he could not handle the pressure and made an avoidable mistake.

Read takes his second chance and pockets the final ball. He wins and is the 2008 European Champion 8-ball wheelchair division.

Tankred Volkmer from Germany also played a great EC. He clearly won all of his matches up until the semifinal. He lost to Read who defeated him and made him finish third. In spite of that, he looked very happy during the awards ceremony. He had his mascot with him, a little bear who has his own medal.

"Read More..." for the details from the EPBF Press Office.

As play continues at the EPBF Jubilee All-In-One “Dynamic European Championships 2008 here's a summary of the 8-Ball Medalists so far...

Sweden's Marcus Chamat holds his son and 8-Ball Gold at the European Championships.
Photographer (Helga Ackermann, Miltenberg, GER).

THE 2008 EUROPEAN POOL CHAMPIONSHIPS
8-Ball
Men
	1st	Marcus Chamat	Sweden
	2nd	Zoran Svilar	Serbia
	3rd	Thorsten Hohmann	Germany
	3rd	Robert Sudic	Croatia

MEN'S 8-BALL
Rough on the outside while soft on the inside
Chamat defeats his opponent and also proves to be a loving dad

It was the most beautiful moment of the EC. Just before Marcus Chamat aimed at his final 8-ball to win the match versus Serbian Zoran Svilar, he stopped and looked lovingly at his son who was sitting in the audience. Nobody here would have expected this emotional eruption by the Swede who normally is rather cool. Especially not in this match where Chamat did not leave the slightest chance for the Serbian. 8:3 was the final score in favor of Chamat.

The only one who had a chance to stop Chamat during the 8-Ball competition was Oliver Ortmann in the quarter finals. But just like the whole week, Ortmann was out of luck. Chamat took his chances and made his way into the semifinal. In the semifinal, a highly motivated Thorsten Hohmann was awaiting him. Hohmann had played a very good 8-ball EC so far. He would probably have loved to continue with that but Chamat did not leave him a chance. Chamat played without one mistake and by winning 8:1 over Hohmann, the German has achieved the bronze medal.

However, the gold medal was only meant for one person on this unforgettable evening: For Chamat's son, whom he hung the medal around the neck after the award ceremony.
Germany 's Jorn Kaplan was also able to be happy about his performance. He made it to the last 16 and lost to the finalist Zoran Svilar. The word of the day came from Ralf Souquet after losing to Darren Appleton (GBR):" I did not even have the power anymore to be nervous; I was just finished." he said when he was asked about the reasons for his defeat.

Austrian Maximilian Lechner wins 8-Ball Junior Gold at the 2008 Euro Championships.
Photographer (Helga Ackermann, Miltenberg, GER).

THE 2008 EUROPEAN POOL CHAMPIONSHIPS
8-Ball
Juniors
	1st	Maximillian Lechner	Austria
	2nd	Roman Pruchay	Russia
	3rd	Francisco Sanchez	Spain
	3rd	Mats Schjetne	Norway

JUNIORS 8-BALL
"Maxi" provides the sensation
Newcomer takes the gold medal / Favorites Ouschan and Jentsch get early outs

Nobody would have thought about that before the EC. Albin Ouschan and Dominic Jentsch seemed to be invincible. They both lose in the last 16 and Maximilian Lechner claims the title.

Probably nobody! The two shooting stars who every once in a while take their trophies in world class men's tournaments just disappeared out of the junior's competition. Ouschan lost to Poland's Mariusz Skonecny in a tough match with 5:7 while Jentsch was crushed by Ukrainian Evgen Novosad 0:7. For these two the competition was over; but it has just started for somebody else.

Maximilan Lechner from Austria entered the spotlight. With victories over Konrad Gdaniek from Poland (7:4) in the quarterfinal and Mate Hazay in the semifinal (7:3), the pleasant sunny boy suddenly found himself in the final match of the EC. Nobody, not even his closest friends, thought that that was possible. But he has made it.

The final was very single-sided and reminded of a Spanish bullfight with the respective roles. Lechner who was cheered by more than one hundred Austrian fans played never before. He won the final match 7:0 to become the European 8- ball Champion 2008 in the junior's division.

EC Ladies 8-Ball Gold Medal winner Sylvia Buschhuter from Germany.
Photographer (Helga Ackermann, Miltenberg, GER).

THE 2008 EUROPEAN POOL CHAMPIONSHIPS
8-Ball
Ladies
	1st	Sylvia Buschhuter	Germany
	2nd	Brigitte Ganze	Germany
	3rd	Pia Vahasoyrinki	Finland
	3rd	Birgit Reimann	Germany

LADIES 8-BALL
The heart in the right place
Sylvia Buschhueter takes the gold medal in the ladies' division

She is a cheerful person and she would have also been ok if her opponent in the final match, Brigitte Ganze would have won in her place. With a convincing victory, 5:2 in the ladies' final, Buschhueter came back to the stage and achieved another European title.

None of the competitions was so dominated by just one nation as the ladies division. All 3 competitors finished within the final 8 and were finally stopped because they had to play each other.

Brigitte Ganze was undefeated when she had to play Birgit Reimann in the semifinal who came back after a long time without any competition. Ganze started out with putting a lot of pressure on Reimann and was able to win the match 5:2. Birgit Reimann took the bronze medal in the EC right after she has achieved the title at the German championships. In the second semifinal, Sylvia Buschhueter had to play to the best of her ability. Finish Pia Vähäsöyrinki desperately wanted to make it into the final and started very confident. Thanks to her good ability to concentrate, Buschhueter was able to defeat her with 5:3 in the end.

The final match was not as high class as the previous matches but it was exciting and entertaining. "Sylvia was the better player and has deserved the EC title" the defeated player from Berlin said and was happy about her silver medal and her opponent's gold medal.

German Gold for Anja Wagner in Girls 8-Ball at the 2008 European Championships.
Photographer (Helga Ackermann, Miltenberg, GER).

THE 2008 EUROPEAN POOL CHAMPIONSHIPS
8-Ball
Girls
	1st	Anja Wagner	Germany
	2nd	Sara Trangard	Sweden
	3rd	Petra Stadbauer	Austria
	3rd	Chantal Manske	Germany

GIRLS 8-BALL
"I wanted to continue play"
Germany's Anja Wagner wins the gold medal in the girl's division

"It was simply overwhelming, I wanted to continue playing for another 10 racks; it was really cool" the newly crowned 8-ball champion in the girl's division said in the interview straight after the final match.

It was really fascinating to see how easy the German girl made her way through the EC and it was at the same time terrifying for the rest of Europe. None of her opponents had the slightest chance to win, they should have been happy to reach a 2:5 or 3:5 against Wagner. You could see her passion for the game in her eyes while she played. She did not only celebrate 8-Ball in the final match against Sweden's Sara Trangard, she enjoyed each and every one of her matches.

The bronze medals were delivered to Austria and Germany. While German Chantal Manske was very happy about her bronze medal, the Austrian Petra Stadlbaur was sorry for having missed the final after she has taken the crown in straight pool earlier this week. She had several chances to play the second final of the EC when the score was 4:4. During the award ceremony her anger was already gone. With shiny eyes she took the bronze medal.

Holger Gries finally wins Senior's Gold at the 2008 European Championships.
Photographer (Helga Ackermann, Miltenberg, GER).

THE 2008 EUROPEAN POOL CHAMPIONSHIPS
8-Ball
Seniors
	1st	Holger Gries	Germany
	2nd	Manuel Pereira	Spain
	3rd	Kent Karlsson	Sweden
	3rd	Karl Hanscho	Austria

SENIOR'S 8-BALL
The knot was finally cut
Gries defeats Portuguese Pereira in the final

Finally, the pleasant Hessian was able to prove what he can do. Performing constantly on a high level, he left the whole European elite far behind him and took the title in the seniors' 8-Ball division.

Holger Gries has made it. Thanks to his overwhelming performance in the final against his Portuguese bogey opponent Pereira he took the title in the seniors' 8-Ball division. He has just missed this title last year. Winning 7:3 in the final he took revenge for the defeat in 2007 and took his greatest victory so far. His teammate Harald Schröter achieved a very good 5th place. He lost 6:7 to Swedish Kent Karlsson.

The favorite player and EC in straight pool, Günter Geisen, had two bad days and was eliminated unexpectedly in the preliminaries. Last year's EC Olaf Köster did not really catch a better day. He made it one round further than Geisen but did not make it to the final 16. He lost to Swedish Peter Akesson with 5:7 in the qualification round.

Jasmin Ouschan in action at the 2008 European Championships.
Photographer (Helga Ackermann, Miltenberg, GER).

THE 2008 EUROPEAN POOL CHAMPIONSHIPS
8-Ball
Women
	1st	Jasmin Ouschan	Austria
	2nd	Line Kjorsvik	Norway
	3rd	Janine Schwan	Germany
	3rd	Amalia Matas	Spain

WOMEN'S 8-BALL
Watch out! Do not provoke that women
Jasmin Ouschan takes ice cold revenge from Line Kjörsvik

She is one of the stars at this EC. She is blond, has a lovely face, a great body, she is modest. And she seems to be shy. But watch out! She can be an ice cold killer!

There was one single moment when her opponent Line Kjörsvik thought she might see some hope. In the seventh rack of the match the score was 2:4 against her. Ouschan did not get position on the final striped ball. She must put her hand above a solid ball knowing that the ball she has to play is not an easy one. The 8-ball was lying on the foot sport while the cue ball was frozen to the top rail. And this all in a very important game in the final match. Either getting a comfortable 5:2 lead or letting Kjörsvik get close with 3:4.

20 seconds later: Ouschan shakes her fist as if she wanted to squeeze a raw potato. She has pocketed this tough 8-Ball in the middle of the pocket. And she knows: "Now I've got you, my dear!"

And she was right. Runout - 6:2. Break Kjörsvik, one ball down, two balls pocketed, then a miss - game over! Ouschan takes revenge for the semifinal loss against the Norwegian and she becomes European Champion while her fans give her a big round of applause.

Janine Schwan from Germany also played a very good EC. She could only be stopped by one player. Correct! By Jasmin Ouschan. She lost relatively clear with 3-6 but the result is misleading. The girl from Alsdorf was closer to the sensation than one would think reading this result. Her great performance was rewarded with the bronze medal.

THE 2008 EUROPEAN POOL CHAMPIONSHIPS
8-Ball
Pupils
	1st	Ivar Saris	Netherlands
	2nd	Wojciech Szewczyk	Poland
	3rd	Marek Kudlik	Poland
	3rd	Marc Bijsterbosch	Netherlands

PUPIL'S 8-BALL
A new star is born
Dutch Ivar Saris takes the gold medal / three players from Poland in the quarter finals

It is the EC of the newcomers. It is also the birthplace for future stars in the sky of pool billiards. And it is the EC of the young Dutch and Polish players. They alone dominated this competition.

In the quarterfinals there were three Polish and two Dutch players. Germany's Manuel Ederer would have been the only player to break the strong line of the two nations. He lost to Dutch Marc Bijsterbosch very close with 5:6 and became 5th. The semifinals were a Dutch-Polish coproduction with the happy end being on the Dutch side. Ivar Saris, who lost in the straight pool very closely to Ruslan Chinahov, demonstrated his high level of play and secured his victory over Polish Wojciech Szewczyk with 6:3 in the final match.

"I am more than happy about this title. I have worked for it very hard and I have waited a long time for it. The Dutch player dedicated this title to his parents. They supported him on his way to a possible career in billiards.

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