Baribal Billiard Club
Tartu Highway 63/Hermanni 1
Tallinn
Estonia
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More photography from this event by Eerik Vija
Saturday/Sunday 12-13 November 2011
Baltic Champions Anna Grintśuk and Denis Grabe.
All photography courtesy & copyright of ©Eerik Vija.
Estonians show supremacy in Olympic-Online Baltic Pool League Final
This last weekend in Tallinn's Baribal Poolclub, the final event of the prestigious Olympic-Online Baltic Pool League 2011 (OOBPL) was held. To the delight of the home crowd as the first winners of this event were crowned Estonians Denis Grabe and Anna Grintśuk. The game was 10-ball and participants the best 32 men and 8 women of the overall OOBPL 2011 ranking. The winners are both real champions as the whole final event was played with single elimination and that means that there was no room for any errors.
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Juri Talu and 2nd Place Konstantin Afanasjev
Juri Talu and 3rd Place Kait Hinn
Grabe proved his dominance
As said before only the best could win the event and so he did. Having the spell of his life this season, Denis Grabe (Team Olympic-Online) proved once again his dominance in the Baltics. Not one of his opponents was really able to give him a real challenge. Although Kait Hinn is Grabe’s good friend there was no friendly points given in the semi-final as Grabe totaly dominated the match and crashed Hinn with a comfortable 9-3 win. The other side of the bracket was all about Lithuanians and seemed to be certain on paper. The overall ranking winner Marius Śiaudkulis needed to win the 32 seed of the event Konstantin Afanasjev. Nevertheless paper often does not reflect the real life. Afanasjev pulled out the shock of the season when he won the semi-final with a score of 9:6. He kept his good performance in the final when he took an early lead 2:0 against Grabe. Afanasjev had a perfect opportunity to go 3:0 up when having ball in hand and number 9 and 10 ball on the table. To the sorrow of his fans he did not keep his composure and managed to miss the number 9 ball and give the needed break for Grabe. Estonian was not too shy to take the presented opportunity and made it 1:2 and made a run out in the next rack. Regardless of the fact that Grabe grabbed the chance Afansjev was not defeated yet. He gained back his confidence and kept Grabes pace until 6:5 for Grabe. After that it was all about Grabe as he dominated the rest of the match by clinching a 11:6 victory. To gescribe Grabe’s dominance it must be said that Grabe did not loose a single match throughout the three events that he participated in. „It is always a joy to win in front of the home supporters. The tournament was organised really well and it is pleasure to note that these kind of events are finally held in Estonia as well. I would like to thank Olympic-Onilne, all the pool clubs and organisers for their support and dedication to make this event possible,“ said the overjoyed overall winner of the OOBPL.
Juri Talu and 2nd Place Egle Daunoraite
Juri Talu and 3rd Place Gintare Aleknaite
Grintśuk won her first stage, the final stage!!!
Grintśuks whole season may be described as unstable, she showed some really good as well as some poor performances. Nevertheless, finally she was able to keep her mind on the perfect game and show what she is made of. Regardless of the fact that Grintśuk was almost eliminated by Alberta Śimkeviciute from Lithuania in the first round of the event the semi-final and final she played nearly perfectly. In her semi-final she made her point clear by beating Lithuanian Gintare Aleknaite 7:3. In the final she had to overcome another Lithuanian, Egle Daunoraite, who won her semi-final 7:6 against a very strong Latvian Anna Prisjazniuka. Since both of the finalists had not won an event this year it promised to become a tough match. Grintśuk had other opinions though. She took an early lead 7:1 and after some resistance from Daunoraite Grintśuk managed to end the match with a score of 9:4. "I am very happy to reach the final. In my first match against Aberta Śimkevićiute I managed to a very nearly win as she missed the number 10 ball when the score was 6:6. I took this as a bonus and after that, and tried to get the best of all my chances. The final was not very tense as the opponent gave me a lot of chances that I managed to turn to my advantage. I am very happy that our beloved sport is developing and that more and more of this kind of high quality tournaments are held thanks to Olympic-Online and other sponsors and dedicated people. I hope that the next year brings me even more success and good emotions. To sum it up I would like to thank all the sponsors and organisers that made this fantastic event possible," shared her thoughts women's division winner Anna Grintśuk.
Organisers are looking forward for the next season
During the 2011 season there were a total of 132 men and 20 women participants from the Baltics, Finland and Russia participating in the event. The organisers confirmed that the agreement with Olympic-Online to hold the event next year as well is already reached. The first event is to be held in April. "For me personally the best emotion was that the final event's final was held between the best player in the Baltics and the last seeded player of the final event. This says a lot about the high level of the event and that everyone has a chance when one believes in himself. Actually the same goes for the women's final as well. During the season Anna was often uncertain in herself, but in the final she proved to everyone, and what’s most important to herself, that everything is possible when you believe in yourself. I want to thank all the participants and referees. It is thanks to them that we were able to plan and organise the event in the first place. Additionally I want to thank Olympic-Online and all the pool halls for their contribution and believing in our venture. For the next year we have set firm goals as well. We want to raise the already high organising quality of the event and lure even more players within and outside the Baltics to participate in our event to name some of the goals. Especially I want to thank Tomas Brikmanis and other partners that contributed so much of their time and resources to this event. I am sure that having these kind of great partners we surely reach the set goals in 2012,“ said one of the organisers of the event, Jüri Talu.
"I think that the first season went really well. To be honest even a lot better then I first anticipated. All the qualifying events and final event were organised very well and attracted a lot of participants. We had a fantastic final event during which many interesting matches were held. I want to thank all the participants for their support and hope that next year we manage to offer something even more better,“ summed up the season by one of the organisers Tomas Brikmanis.
Head Referee Dmitri Dmitrjev, Organiser Tomas Brikmanis,
Baltic Champions Anna Grintśuk and Denis Grabe, Organiser Juri Talu
"The organisers always expect the best to win, but that the challengers would offer tough contest. OOBPL has offered exactly that on each event. There has been many surprises and brought out the best of the best. The best player in the Baltics, Denis Grabe, took a firm win in the final, but it is good to acknowledge that a serious challenge is waiting him ahead – the best ones should not take anything for granted. It is always a venture to support new projects, but OOBPL really kicked off from the initial event. Certainly it is the greatest pleasure of the sponsor to see how the project gets better and better and that is why we are anticipating for the next season already. I would like to take the opportunity and thank Estonian and Lithuanian Pool Federation and all the pool halls for the thrilling season!" said Priit Pajumaa, the representative of Olympic-Online, after the successful season.
Marius Šiaudkulis Mirko Raid Rainer Laar Oliver Lepp Mihkel Rehepapp Joonas Saska Kostia Afanasjev Marius Jofe Juri Talu Elstin Zabitov Alexander Leitmae Denis Grabe Leonas Mončiunskas Edvinas Urbietis Raimo Teesaar Kait Hinn | 9:8 9:6 9:4 9:4 9:6 9:2 9:7 9:8 9:6 9:1 9:5 9:5 9:8 9:3 9:7 9:5 | Juss Saska Aleksej Malisevs Mantas Nedzvieckas Rafig Adigazalov j. Mark Magi Tomas Steponkus Mario Hussar Daumantas Dieninis Šarunas Zilnys Saulius Vaitukaitis Dainis Dundurs Tomas Mineikis Reimo Simsalu Peters Ermansons Mindaugas Gedvygas Jiri Marsalo |
Marius Šiaudkulis Rainer Laar Mihkel Rehepapp Kostia Afanasjev Juri Talu Alexander Leitmae Leonas Mončiunskas Raimo Teesaar | 9:4 9:8 9:4 9:7 9:7 6:9 9:7 6:9 | Mirko Raid Oliver Lepp Tomas Steponkus Marius Jofe Elstin Zabitov Denis Grabe Peters Ermansons Kait Hinn |
Marius Šiaudkulis Mihkel Rehepapp Juri Talu Leonas Mončiunskas | 9:2 8:9 3:9 ?:9 | Rainer Laar Kostia Afanasjev Denis Grabe Kait Hinn |
Marius Šiaudkulis Denis Grabe | 6:9 9:3 | Kostia Afanasjev Kait Hinn |
Denis Grabe | 11:6 | Kostia Afanasjev |
Agnė Jarušauskaitė Irina Laidro Gintarė Aleknaitė Alberta Šimkevičiūtė | 7:2 6:7 7:3 6:7 | Ana Prisjazniuka Eglė Daunoraitė Lina Prielaidaitė Anna Grintsuk |
Ana Prisjazniuka Gintarė Aleknaitė | 6:7 4:7 | Eglė Daunoraitė Anna Grintsuk |
Anna Grintsuk | 9:4 | Eglė Daunoraitė |
Baltic Champions Anna Grintśuk and Denis Grabe