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Monday-Sunday 25 July-2 August 2016
Left to right: Dudanets, Tkach and Pehlivanovic
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10-ball titles for Tkach, Pehlivanovic and Dudanets
The 10-ball titles at the Dynamic Billard European Championships in Tirana, Albania, have been decided. Kristina Tkach (RUS) defended her title, Maksim Dudanets (RUS) and Sanjin Pehlivanovic (BIH) claimed it in their respective division.
In the Under 17’s, Wiktor Zielinski (POL) encountered Sanjin Pehlivanovic (BIH) in the final match. They have already met in the semi-final of the straight pool division and Pehlivanovic still had a score to settle since Zielinski defeated him then and went on to win the Gold Medal. Both contestants were a bit nervous in the early stage of the match which resulted in several missed ball and easy mistakes. It looked like Pehlivanovic would get his revenge. He was leading 4:2 after six racks played. Then Zielinski pulled back one rack, went for his time-out and pulled another rack off Pehlivanovic to tie the match at 4:4. The heat was on in the final. Both players really wanted that title and one could feel the pressure on both of them.
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Pehlivanovic got on the hill first but Zielinski again tied the match. Now we had a hill-hill thriller at 5:5. The better end happened for Pehlivanovic. He was able to run the final rack and win the match by a whisker with 6:5 in order to take revenge for straight pool and win the title in the 10-ball discipline.
Top Eight Finishers
1. Sanjin Pehlivanovic (BIH)
2. Wiktor Zielinski (POL)
3. Mustafa Alnar (TNC)
Jan van Lierop (NED)
5. Fedor Gorst (RUS)
Szymon Blazer (POL)
Igor Trifonov (RUS)
Andreas-Steen Bonnelykke (DEN)
In the Under 19’s, Dudanets met Daniel Maciol (POL) in the final match. Dudanets was the highly favored player in this match. He justified this estimation and went ahead pretty quickly. He took five of the first six racks in order to turn the scoreboard to 5:1 in his favor. Maciol seemed to find no recipe against the strong Russian. Then they both won one rack to make it 6:2. Suddenly, Maciol obviously got some more momentum and won two racks in a row. Now it was only 6:4 for Dudanets and it looked like Maciol could be able to start a comeback on him. But he failed playing a safety shot, leaving an open table to Dudanets. The Russian thanked him and ran the rack, winning the match and the 10-ball title 7:4.
Top Eight Finishers
1. Maksim Dudanets (RUS)
2. Daniel Maciol (POL)
3. Osman Sanlisoy (TNC)
Cyriel Ledoux (NED)
5. Mark Magi (EST)
Michael Schneider (SUI)
Kevin Schiller (GER)
Adrijan Todic (SUI)
In the girls division, Kristina Tkach and Diana Khodjaeva (BEL) are definitely the two strongest players in the field. Both were teammates recently at team Europe in the Atlantic Challenge Cup. So it was not necessarily a surprise to see them jousting in the final of the girls category. Both players are equally talented and also equally experienced so it would be a tight match. And it was. They both took racks in turn until the score was 3:3. Then Tkach went on the hill first and maybe got a psychological advantage on her side. However, rack eight was fiercely fought over but Tkach managed to snatch it from Khodjaeva, winning the girls division with 5:3 over her Belgian opponent.
Top Six Finishers
1. Kristina Tkach (RUS)
2. Diana Khodjaeva (BEL)
3. Dina Fatihova (RUS)
My Nguyen (SWE)
5. Jana Peters (GER)
Palina Chernik (BLR)
The Dynamic Billard European Championships Youth will continue tomorrow morning at 09:00 CET with matches in the team competition. At 12:00 local time, event switches back to 8-ball individuals.
JUNIOR 10-BALL - REPORT 2
Diana Khodjaeva (BEL)
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Khodjaeva wins over Fatihova
In the girls division at the Dynamic Billard European Championships Youth in Tirana, Albania, last year’s runner-up Diana Khodjaeva (BEL) won 5:1 over Dina Fatihova (RUS) in the winner’s qualification round.
The course of the match proved that Khodjaeva was too strong for Fatihova today. When the match was more than half way through, Fatihova only opened her account to get to 1:3 before Khodjaeva finished the match completely with 5:1. It was a one sided performance by the strong Belgian. Just like her, last year’s Champion Kristina Tkach (RUS) won her match 5:1 over My Nguyen (SWE). Both finalists from last year are once again through to the semi-finals which will be played tomorrow at 16:30 CET. In the semi-finals, they will exchange their opponents from the round before. Nguyen defeated Jana Peters (GER) 5:3 in the loser’s qualification round while Fatihova got the better of Palina Chernik (BLR) in order to win a medal in this competition. That means that Fatihova will deal with Khodjaeva and Nguyen will face Tkach.
In the Under 19’s, number one seeded Maksim Dudanets (RUS) also booked his seat in the semi-finals. He defeated today Timofey Sereda (BLR) 7:3, Kostas Koukiadakis (GRE) 7:1 and Mark Magi (EST) 7:3. He will meet underdog Osman Sanlisoy (TNC) in the semi-final match. Sanlisoy ousted Bilge Alacam (TNC) 7:5, Enea Shytaj (ALB) 7:1 and Michael Schneider (SUI) surprisingly clear 7:4. The other semi-final will be played between Daniel Maciol (POL) and Cyriel Ledoux (NED).
In the division of the Under 17’s, defending Champion Fedor Gorst (RUS) was ousted by all-time rival Wiktor Zielinski (POL) 2:6. Zielinski will play the semi-final against Mustafa Alnar (TNC), another surprise player from North Cyprus. Alnar won 6:0 over Szymon Blazej (POL). The other semi-final is scheduled between Sanjin Pehlivanovic (BIH) and Jan van Lierop (NED).
The Dynamic Billard European Championships Youth will continue tomorrow morning at 09:00 CET with first round matches in the 8-ball competition. At 16:30 local time, the 10-ball semi-finals are played with the finals scheduled for 18:30 CET.
JUNIOR 10-BALL - REPORT 1
Kestutis Zadeikis (large pic) and Alessandro Amendola
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Zadeikis with a great comeback
Kestutis Zadeikis (LIT) came up with a great comeback effort at the Dynamic Billard European Championships Youth in Tirana, Albania, in the 10-ball Under 17’s, winning 6:5 over Alessandro Amendola (ITA).
Zadeikis was already trailing 0:3 and 2:4 in a race to 6 in the loser’s qualification round. He stayed focussed in the match and managed to tie it at 4:4 after 8 racks. Then, his Italian opponent got on the hill first. Zadeikis once again stayed strong and tied the match at hill-hill. In turn, Amendola played a shot and just slightly feathered the 9-ball with the cue ball. Discussions arose and team leaders and spectators from both sides got involved into an argument whether a foul had been committed or not. Zadeikis remained quite cool and stayed out of the discussion. When no solution could be found, he decided to accept the table without ball in hand and ran the remaining two balls for a 6:5 victory over Amendola. In video research after the match it could be proven that Amendola has definitely not committed a foul in the said situation and so the handling of it was completely in order.
Other interesting results include defending Champion Fedor Gorst (RUS) winning 6:3 over Karo Langstroem (FIN). Wiktor Zielinski (POL) was victorious over his fellow countryman Szymon Kural (POL) 6:1. In the girls division, Jana Peters (GER) took an easy win with 5:2 over Michelle Sandman (NOR). Peters’ teammate Pia Blaeser (GER) took care of Sandman’s teammate Nina Torvund (NOR) 5:1. Alara Gaffari (TNC) won 5:3 over Kyenna Marcic (NED) while Palina Chernik (BLR) eliminated Laura Hartikainen (FIN) 5:2.
Earlier today, the first team matches have been played. In the Under 19 category, 14 teams are on the chart. Defending Champion Germany and runner-up Russia had a walk-over in the first round, all others had to start their quest today. North Cyprus kind of surprisingly defeated Italy 2:1 and will face Germany in the next round on Friday. Poland was favored over Slovakia and made short work with them, winning the match 2:0. Same score and setup was good for Czech Republic in their match with Luxembourg. The Netherlands remained the upper hand over Switzerland with 2:0 and Norway defeated host nation Albania also 2:0. Austria got the better of Belarus and will face the Russian team in the next round.
In the Under 17 teams, ten teams are in the starting list. That means that only two matches in the first round had to be played. All other nations had a walk-over there. The two results from round one are Russia winning 2:1 over Lithuania and Norway claiming a 2:1 victory over Finland. The Russians will have a go at defending Champion Germany in the next round while Norway will face the Polish team as their opponents.
The Dynamic Billard European Championships Youth will continue today with 10-ball matches in the Girls, the Under 17 and Under 19 division.
The Championships are played on 24 tables which are all streamed LIVE throughout the whole event. In order to be able to follow all the action LIVE, premium membership can be purchased at www.kozoom.com. Once a premium membership is held, all events for the respective period of time can be viewed LIVE. Additionally, a huge video gallery is contained in the website.
The event is 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.epconline.eu, visit us on Facebook or check out our youtube channel for regular news clips or contact our press office press@epbf.com.
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