Most heavyweights out while underdogs make their ways
Thursday, 04 August 2011: The finals of the EPBF Dynamic European Youth Championships 2011 in the 8-ball division will be played between Lars Kuckherm (GER) and Wojciech Szewczyk (POL) in the juniors division, Vitaly Pavlukhin (RUS) and Joshua Filler (GER) in the pupils division and Nataliya Seroshtan (RUS) and Darya Sirotina (RUS) in the girls division.
Especially in the juniors division, most heavyweights have been ousted. Defending Champion Jim Chawki (SWE) lost again to Mario He (AUT) with 5:7. He advanced to the semi-final where he was beaten up by Lars Kuckherm (GER), losing 3:7. Manuel Ederer (GER) had to give in to Netherland's Marc Bijsterbosch in the quarter final round. Bijsterbosch then played Wojciech Szewczyk (POL) and had no chance of winning that match at all. The Polish player seemed to be so strong that Bijsterbosch almost looked helpless. Szewczyk won 7:1 and will meet Lars Kuckherm (GER) in the final. That will be an interesting match since both juniors played very strong and ambitious and it will be interesting to see who of them will get momentum first in the junior's final.
In the pupils division, David Maslov (RUS) had to let Tobias Bongers (GER) pass by and unexpectedly lost with 2:6. Pavlukhin (RUS) then sneaked past Bongers in the semi-final, just defeating him with 6:5. Pavlukhin and Filler (GER), who won against Mikolaj Zabecki (POL) with 6:2, both played extremely well during the event and the final matchup between the two will be as exciting to watch as the junior's final.
The girls division was dominated once again by the Russians. All three participants made it to the semi-finals with Nataliya Seroshtan terminating Ana Gradisnik's (SLO) hopes with 5:2 while Sirotina again beat her teammate Anastasia Nechaeva with 5:3. The Russian girls will play for Gold and Silver here in Luxembourg tonight.
The European Championships are 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.epbf.com , follow us on twitter @EPBF_News or contact our press office.
