Jasmin Ouschan (Photo courtesy of Michael Neumann)
Jasmin Ouschan has accomplished what no other athlete has ever done at the European Championships and has won gold in all four disciplines. She won the 8-Ball, 9-Ball, 10-Ball and the 14.1 events and did so in grand style.
She went totally undefeated in the 14.1 and defeated Gerda Hofstatter 75-19 in the finals. She then went completely undefeated in the 10-Ball and defeated Ina Jentschura 6-3. She also went undefeated in the 8 Ball competition and defeated Line Kjorsvik 6-5 in the finals. Finally, she cruised through the 9 Ball field, suffering one loss there to Line Kjorsvik, and then came back and bested Gerda Hofstatter again in the finals, this time by the score of 7-0 to totally dominate and sweep the entire event! Are there any questions? Not here. With this performance Ouschan has proven to have fulfilled her promise and her potential and she now stands well atop the European pool scene. Look no further when in search of the Queen of the Game.
There was a bit more variety on the men's side of the arena. Konstantin Stepanov came out ahead of Marcus Chamat 8-6 to take the 8-Ball title while Ralf Souquet slipped by Mateusz Sniegocki 9-8 to grab the 9-Ball gold. Souquet also won gold in the 10-Ball division, beating Niels Feijen 7-4 in the final match. David Alcaide took the 14.1 honors by destroying Artem Koshovyi 125 – 3 in the final match.
In the wheelchair division Kurt Deklerck narrowly got past Henrik Larson to earn the top tier in the 8-Ball division while Jouni Tahti got past the same man, Larson, to win the gold in the 9-Ball section. Tahti also grabbed his second gold in the 10-Ball division by handing a 5-0 doughnut to Roy Kimberly.
Our congratulations go out to all of the new champions. The European Championships sport large and powerful fields and to win there is an honor indeed.
