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7 - 14 August 2011
Portuguese beat Swedes in Team Final of European Seniors Championships
Saturday, 13 August 2011: Team Portugal defeated Team Sweden in the final of the Dynamic European Seniors Championships with a clear 3:0 victory.
The final match was not so much a thriller as the earlier matches were. The results were quite obvious in favour of the Portuguese. Henrique Correia (POR) smashed Kent Karlsson (SWE) with 7:3 in the 10-ball encounter. Luis Torres (POR) played Magnus Lindgren (SWE) in 9-ball. Lindgren made too many mistakes and was at no point in time able to put pressure on Torres.
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EC SENIORS 2011 - TEAM PORTUGAL ARE THE CHAMPIONS
The score was already 6:0 for Torres when Lindgren seemed to get going. He managed to win three racks but Torres was simply better than him today. Luis Torres won three more racks and took the match 7:3, also winning the Team encounter with 3:0. At that time, the score in the 8-ball match between Manuel Pereira (POR) and Tom Eksell (SWE) was 3:2 in favour of Pereira.
 | 1st | Team Portugal |  | PORTUGAL |
| 2nd | Team Sweden |  | SWEDEN | |
| 3rd | Team Belgium |  | BELGIUM | |
| 3rd | Team Netherlands |  | NETHERLANDS | |
EC SENIORS 2011 - CORREIA TAKES HIS SECOND GOLD MEDAL
Correia takes his second Gold Medal / Silver Medal for Robert Sudic
Friday, 12 August 2011: In the final match of the Dynamic European Seniors Championships 9-ball, Henrique Correia from Portugal defeated his opponent Robert Sudic from Croatia with 9:6.
The principal performers in the final match both demonstrated excellent 9-ball pool. Correia, being the defending Champion in 9-ball, made it very clear that he wanted to keep the title for another year. He won the first two racks, running all balls. But Sudic is known as a fighter. He has a good and solid stroke and before Correia knew what was happening Sudic struck back and took a 5:2 lead over Correia.
The Portuguese seemed to be nervous and did not cut a fine figure in this phase of the final match. He took a time-out and left the arena to recollect himself. When he came back, he played a different match. His shots were more precise and he did not make the easy mistakes that he made in the earlier stage of the match. When Correia’s star raised, Sudic’s play went down. Now it was him to play bad shots and missing positions and balls. No wonder, Correia was able to gain a 6:5 advantage over Sudic soon.
In the 12th rack, Sudic played a foul shot on the 1-ball and Correia got to the table. But instead of running the rack he missed the 6-ball. Sudic hoped for a second life and ran the rack, tying the match at 6:6. The very next three racks broke Sudic’s neck in the final. In the 13th rack he had three balls down on his own break shot when he missed an easy 2-ball. Correia ran out and ran his own break game, being on the hill at 8:6. Then, Sudic broke again, had two balls down and a very good chance to narrow the gap to his opponent. But he missed a makeable 7-ball. That was it! Correia ran out and snatched the title.
 | 1st | Henrique Correia | | PORTUGAL |
| 2nd | Robert Sudic |  | CROATIA | |
| 3rd | Antti Rantanen |  | FINLAND | |
| 3rd | Jimmy Worung | | NETHERLANDS | |
Tomorrow, Saturday August 13th, will be the last day of the Dynamic European Seniors Championship. The teams will look for a gold medal winner. Matches will commence at 09:00 local time.
EC SENIORS 2011 - 8 BALL - WIRSBITZKI TAKES THE GLORY
Gold medal in seniors 8-ball for German player
Friday, 12 August 2011: In a hotly contested final match, Reiner Wirsbitzki (GER) wrestled Zoltan Kojsza (HUN) down with a margin of 7:6.
The drama in the screenplay for the final match can hardly be enhanced. Here is what happened: Wirsbitzki got the better start, taking a quick 2:0 lead over Kojsza. He ran both racks without any mistake. Then he scratched on his own break. The next time he was able to approach the table, the score was 2:2. Kojsza has dealt him an adequate answer. The 5th rack was a turning point for Wirsbitzki. He broke the balls, ran the rack and had position on the 8-ball. But he missed it. “The 8-ball did not really go into the center of the pocket. It was a bit covered by my opponent’s object ball. That’s why I tried to play it into the left side of the pocket, but I aimed it too far left and therefore missed it”, said Wirsbitzki in an interview after the match. “My power just went down. I had a long day playing pool and I needed to focus on my remaining energy.”
Then the match went on with an odd order. The player who broke made a ball, ran all balls but the last one or ran out of position for the 8-ball, allowing the opponent back to the table and run out the rack. That happened five consecutive times until the score was 5:4 in favour of Kojsza. Then both players took a time out. “During the time-out I believed in my own strength and I knew I could still win this match. I would have the break in a possible 13th rack if it comes to that”, said Wirsbitzki. But after both athletes arrived back from the time-out, Wirsbitzki made another position error and allowed Kojsza to get on the hill, taking a 6:4 lead over him.
Something must have happened with Wirsbitzki at that point in time since he really got back into gear, firing balls in and tying the match at 6:6, making it a hill-hill thriller.
In the 13th rack, Wirsbitzki had the break shot. He did not make any ball and Kojsza found himself with an open table on the road to glory. But he got no position on his third last ball and had to play safety. Wirsbitzki made some balls but then also missed his 3rd last ball. Kojsza came back to the table, made two balls and missed his final object ball. At that point in time one could hear a pin drop in the audience. Tension was so real it could almost be physically felt. Wirsbitzki tried to pocket a ball, missed and luckily hid the cue ball behind one of his remaining object balls. Kojsza let his shoulders down. He knew: “That was it!” He tried to kick his last object ball in but failed to hit it at all. With ball in hand, Wirsbitzki ran the remaining balls and won the final match with 7:6, becoming the new European Champion in Seniors 8-ball. “I am playing pool billiard since 34 years now. When I was on the podium for the first time in my life on the European level and heard the German national anthem being played for me, I had a shiver running down my spine, thinking that I had won an event with so many fine players and achieved the title of a European Champion for the first time in my live”, said a happy Wirsbitzki before leaving the press room with a smile.
 | 1st | Reiner Wirsbitzki |  | GERMANY |
| 2nd | Zoltan Kojsza |  | HUNGARY | |
| 3rd | Pascal Budo | | BELGIUM | |
| 3rd | David Plattner |  | SWITZERLAND | |
EC SENIORS 2011 - HENRIQUE CORREIA IS TEN BALL CHAMPION
Correia defeats Malinowski in the final match
Tuesday, 09 August 2011: Henrique Correia from Portugal is the new European 10-ball Champion 2011. He defeated Tomasz Malinowski from Poland in the final match with 7:5.
The final was expected to be more or less a one man show by Correia. Malinowski has had some good performances but Correia was dominating his opponents most of the times. However, Correia made unexpectedly many mistakes in the final match. He missed a 9-ball, in another rack he missed the 10-ball – all of those mistakes Malinowski was able to benefit from and get points into his score account.
At a score of 6:4 in favour of Correia, everybody was already getting ready for the awards ceremony since it looked like a done deal. But the cue ball scratched while Correia pocketed the 9-ball. Now it got tighter and tighter for the Portuguese. In the 12th rack, Malinowski was the better safety shot player but in the end he was forced to commit a foul. Correia got ball in hand and deservedly won the match with 7:5 and the Championship title as well.
Tomorrow, the Championship will continue with the beginning of the 8-ball competition.
 | 1st | Henrique Correia | | PORTUGAL |
| 2nd | Tomasz Malinowski |  | POLAND | |
| 3rd | Jimmy Worung | | NETHERLANDS | |
| 3rd | Robert Sudic | | CROATIA | |
EC SENIORS 2011 - STRAIGHT POOL
Italian wins straight pool crown in Luxembourg
Tuesday, 09 August 2011: In the Dynamic European Seniors Championship, Stefano Bazzana from Italy snatched the title in the straight pool discipline. He crushed Heiko Müller from Germany with 100:47.
The final match was mainly the show of Bazzana. But it was not like that all the way through. In the beginning of the final, both players showed equal strength, pocketing all makeable shots. When the scoreboard showed 30:30, the match flipped in favour of Bazzana.
He simply made fewer mistakes than Müller, and he better adjusted to the shot clock that the match was put under by the tournament officials. Bazzana made the score 66:36 when Müller got another chance at the table. But he only played 10 balls before he let the Italian back to the table.
The next time, Müller entered the stage the score was 83:36 for Bazzana. It looked like Müller had already given up. He made another ball but missed the very next one. In the end, Bazzana rightfully won the match with 100:47 over Müller and deserved to take the title in straight pool.
 | 1st | Stefano Bazzana |  | ITALY |
| 2nd | Heiko Müller | | GERMANY | |
| 3rd | Robert Sudic | | CROATIA | |
| 3rd | Luis Torres | | PORTUGAL | |
Tomorrow, the tournament will continue at 09:00 local time with the first rounds of the team competition before it will switch to 10-ball at 13:00.
The European Championships are 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.epbf.com , follow us on twitter @EPBF_News or contact our press office.
