Wojciech Szewczyk
THE 2023 DYNAMIC Billard European Championships concluded this afternoon at a packed Tampere Exhibition and Sports Centre as the destination of the final gold medals in the 9 Ball Division were determined.
Poland’s Wojciech Szewczyk claimed his first ever European Championship individual gold, while Pia Filler claimed her second EC win, crowning a highly successful week for the German team. In the wheelchair match it was veteran gold medal claimant Henrik Larsson who sealed another victory, while Germany’s young Yuma Dorner saved his best to last to dominate the Under 23 final.
Szewczyk was in a proper battle this time out against Spain’s underrated Francisco Diaz Pizarro who was looking to add this title to 9 ball gold medals achieved in 2012 and 2015. The Pole won the lag and in a high quality match, they shared the opening four racks with break and runs.
Szewczyk delivered the first dry break of the match and left a reasonable layout for his opponent. The only problem was the 4 ball, tied up with the 9 and Diaz didn’t attain good enough position and consequently nudged the 9 to give ball in hand to Szewczyk. It was a missed chance for Diaz as Szewczyk cleared up for 3-2.
Diaz had a difficult look at the 2 ball after a successful break but elected to push put. An aggressive attempt on the 2 ball missed for the Spaniard and Szewczyk ran through the table for a 2-rack lead. A nice safety from Szewczyk had Diaz reaching for his jump cue and whilst he didn’t make the pot, the 1 ball fell kindly for him forcing Szewczyk to go rail first. A nice pot on the 1 ball down the rail set up the run out for Diaz and it was 3-4.
A lovely table length bank shot on the 1 ball set up the run out for Diaz to level the match at 4-4 Another good break from Wojciech set up the run out as he restored his one-rack lead. Diaz came with some marvellous shot-making in the next to maintain his challenge as he levelled the match at 5-5.
Szewczyk dropped four balls off the break but, disappointingly, had nothing available on the 2 ball. His safety saw Diaz jump and he slammed the 2 ball up table into the pocket. He was hooked on the 3 ball though and his attempted safety left it on for Szewczyk and he made no mistakes for a 6-5 lead. A dry break from Diaz-Pizarro didn’t help his cause but a fluke on the 1 ball gave him the opportunity to make amends. However, a missed 5 from the
Spaniard was the turning point in the rack as Szewczyk took advantage for a 7-5 lead.
Two balls down and a difficult long pot on the 2 ball was all Szewczyk needed as he executed it superbly and then cleared to reach the hill at 8-5. Another miss from Diaz, this time on the 2 ball, left a difficult cut along the top rail for his opponent. He made it and obtained good position on the 3 as the winning line came into sight, and from there he ran out for his first ever European Champ. An emotional Szewczyk took several minutes to compose himself as his gold medal winning effort sunk in.
Szewczyk said, “I had to play the whole day for the for the last couple of days because I also got quite deep in the other disciplines and played all the matches in teams so this is a moment when fatigue can come in but I know my character and I like to tell myself in these situations to push a little harder. I just tried and it worked out.
“I think this is why I got a bit emotional after the final because it made me realised that I’m already a Polish champion, a World Champion and now European Champion. It checks all the boxes. Pool became my job so I have to keep on improving and if there are some gold medals on the way, I’d like to grab a couple of them. In the moment of a big victory, it makes you realise how hard you have worked and those were tears of pride,” he added.
Medals – Men
Gold – Wojciech Szewczyk (POL)
Silver – Francisco Diaz-Pizarro (ESP)
Bronze – Marc Bijsterbosch (NED)
Kim Laaksonen (FIN)
Pia Filler
Pia Filler (Germany) claimed the 9 ball gold medal in the Ladies’ Division following a hard-fought victory over Slovenia’s Ana Gradisnik in an exciting match that went down to the deciding rack. It was the German girl’s second individual gold medal following success last year in the 8 Ball discipline.
Gradisnik had led in the early stages before the match stood all square after six racks. From there, Filler was in the ascendancy as she led 5-3 and then 6-4 in the race-to-seven match. Gradisnik was not done though as she clawed back the 11th game and then won a messy 12th rack after Filler fell foul of the three point rule when breaking for the match.
Filler got back to the table though and with the way the balls were laid out, it was no formality. She had to dig deep and to her great credit she played the rack superbly to run out and claim the gold medal following silver in the 10 ball and bronze in the 8 ball.
Commented Filler, “It feels amazing because after the 8 ball when I lost the semi-final, and then the 10 ball final, I was so disappointed. But I just kept grinding and I made it and I’m really happy. I still believed in myself all the time and just tried to concentrate on my own and I knew what I had to do and I just got the job done today.
(On the German ladies’ clean sweep of the gold medals), “It’s incredible that we’re doing something right in Germany and if one is successful, it keeps the others on their toes to work even harder. It was a good two weeks for us here!”
Medals – Ladies
Gold – Pia Filler (GER)
Silver – Ana Gradisnik (SLO)
Bronze – Veronika Ivanovskaia (GER)
Helena Nyberg Benjamin (SWE)
Henrik Larsson
In the Wheelchair Division, Henrik Larsson (Sweden) defeated Ireland’s Fred Dinsmore 6-4 to claim his 14th Dynamic Billard European Championship gold medal. The effervescent Swede had too much for his opponent in the closing stages after the match was dead level at 3-3. It was a revenge of sorts for Larsson who earlier in the tournament was on the losing end to Dinsmore in a winners’ qualification clash.
The Swede then defeated Poland’s Emil Malanowski to secure a spot in the semi-final where he put paid to old rival Jouni Lahti’s hopes and set up a rematch with Dinmore in the gold medal match.
Larsson said, “It was always going 1-1, 2-2, 3-3 and that puts more pressure on the break as well. It was kind of tough. It’s always fun to play against Jouni so beating him on the way to the final was nice. Twice as much training for me from now and I’m looking forward to 2024.”
Medals – Wheelchair
Gold – Henrik Larsson (SWE)
Silver – Fred Dinsmore (IRE)
Bronze – Jouni Tahti (FIN)
Kim-Ronny Nygard (NOR)
Yuma Dorner
19 year-old Yuma Dorner completed a very successful European Championships as he took the gold in the Men’s Under 23 9 Ball Division to add to the silver he won in the U23 8 ball. The young German defeated Slovakia’s Kristian Mrva by a comfortable 9-2 scoreline. He went out front from the off although Mrva contained him to 4-2 before Dorner ran away with the match in the latter stages.
It was a very nice career progression for Dorner who had won gold, silver and bronze and last years U19 European Championships and it can’t be long before he is elevated into the men’s team. Dorner accumulated some big wins en route to gold including the dangerous Mustafa Alnar and then Jonas Souto. His semi-final match, a 9-5 win over Emil-Andre Gangflot of Norway, made amends for his defeat in the 8 ball final and then came his masterclass in the final.
Dorner said, “It still feels a bit unreal, my first title especially as it’s my first year in the Under 23s. It was a rough day; I had a few tough, close matches but I got there in the end. Hopefully I can go on from here. Even though guys like Josh Filler aren’t here, Germany still has a very strong team. Next up is more training and trying to get better.”
Medals – Under 23
Gold – Yuma Dorner (GER)
Silver – Kristian Mrva (SVK)
Bronze – Quinten Pongers (NED)
Emil-Andre Gangflot (NOR)
That concludes the 2023 Dynamic Billard European Championships for Men, Women and Wheelchair Users. The ECs return on 19th July in Podčetrtek, Slovenia with the U17 and U19 for both boys and girls.
All the matches can be viewed live by visiting www.epbf.com/tournaments/eurot
This will take you through to viewing options. In addition, selected matches will be streamed on Facebook Live on the EPBF page.
Results, live scoring and draw are available at www.epbf.com
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