The 8-ball titles at the Dynamic Billard European Championships for men, women and wheelchair athletes have been collected by Kristina Tkach (RUS), Henrik Larsson (SWE) and Vitaliy Patsura (UKR).
The final match in the men’s division between Vitaliy Patsura (UKR) and Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz (ESP) started out quite even for both contestants. They both took two racks in a row and the scoreboard displayed a score of 2:2 after four racks. The first „mistake“ committed in the match happened at 4:3 in favor of Sanchez when Patsura’s break was coming up. He broke the balls and the cue ball scratched in the side pocket. Sanchez got ball in hand and managed to take a two point lead over Patsura with 5:3. Whether that influenced Patsura heavily or not is hard to say. However, he missed another easy shot in the next rack. This brought Sanchez up with 6:3. Patsura decided to take a time-out and get his things together agin. And it seemed to work for him. He won the next three racks and leveled the match at 6:6. Then it was Sanchez’ time to interrupt the match with a time-out. But the match stayed exciting and both players took another rack to make the match a hill-hill thriller at 7:7. It was Sanchez’ break coming up. He broke them hard and everything was spread out nicely… but no ball went in. Patsura got to the table like in his match yesterday with Niels Feijen when it was hill-hill so he knows how to handle these pressure situations. And he did. He ran the rack and won his first European Champion title in the men’s division with 8:7 over Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz as one of the youngest players ever being 18 years of age.
- Vitaliy Patsura (UKR)
- Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz (ESP)
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Sandor Tot (HUN)
Denis Grabe (EST)
In the women’s division, Kristina Tkach defeated Kateryna Polovinchuk (UKR) 6:3. The match took a strange course for Polovinchuk. She dominated in the beginning and went up 3:1 over Tkach. Then rack five was tough for really hard by both. Tkach won it and took a time-out. When she came back she seemed to be more composed and straight in the zone. She collected point after point, not allowing Polovinchuk any chances anymore. Finally, 6:3 was the score that brought Tkach her Championship in women’s 8-ball.
- Kristina Tkach (RUS)
- Kateryna Polovinchuk (UKR)
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Sandra Baumgartner (AUT)
Amalia Matas (ESP)
In the wheelchair division, Henrik Larsson took down Tony Southern (GBR) with 5:2. The final match was mainly a one man show in favor of Larsson. He played better and much more solid than Southern and rightfully picked up the trophy in the wheelchair division.
- Henrik Larsson (SWE)
- Tony Southern (GBR)
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Matej Brajkovic (SLO
Daniel Lee (GBR)
Medal table after 4 of 5 events:
The Dynamic Billard European Championships will continue tomorrow morning at 10:00 local time with matches in the 9-ball individuals.
The Championships are played on 24 tables which will all be 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.
