Barbara Bolfelli (ITA) and Sami Karttunen (FIN) just won the Gold Medals at the Dynamic Billard European Championships for Seniors and Ladies.
Karttunen had a tough battle to fight with Jesse Thehu (NED) in the seniors final. The match went back and forth and in the 12th rack, Thehu tried to break up two solids which were not playable. He managed to pocket the intended ball, break up the problem but unfortunately for him the cue ball scratched in the side pocket. That brought Karttunen back to the table. He had ball in hand and ran out the rack in order to win the final match with 7:5. It is a very remarkable victory for him since he played his first European Championships at all. „I am more than happy and thankful. A big part of this Gold Medal belongs to my great team“, stated a modest Karttunen after the match.
In the ladies division, Barbara Bolfelli had to deal with Dana Stoll (GER). Everything looked like smooth sailing for her. She took a comfortable 3:0 lead in a race to five. But in rack four she suddenly missed an easy shot and gave second life to Stoll. The match became very exciting and went hill-hill. There, Bolfelli had the better end on her side.
The medal table after three of five events displays Germany in 1st position, followed by Italy and Portugal.
During the first half of the day, the team competition was continued. Several surprising results happened there. Already in the first round of the day at 09:00 CET, Team Italy defeated Team Germany with 2:1 in the first winner’s round. Willner (GER) won 10-ball with 7:4 over Mariano (ITA) while Vialetto (ITA) got the better of Gross (GER) 7:5 in 8-ball and Giacomelli (ITA) overpowered Schwedes (GER) in 9-ball 9:6. In the next round, team Italy played The Netherlands. That duel clearly went in favor of the Dutch team. A clear 3:0 victory took the Dutch players in the semi-final while team Italy needs another victory. Probably the most unexpected result of the day was the 2:1 victory of team Finland over team Portugal. The Portuguese had Correia and Pereira in the team but both of the favorites lost. Correia fell 3:7 to Sami Karttunen and Pereira lost 5:9 to Hartikainen. The Finish join the Dutch in the semi-finals while Norway plays Italy and Austria takes it up against Portugal for a seat in the semi-final.
The Dynamic Billard European Championships 2014 for Seniors and Ladies will continue tomorrow morning at 09:00 CET with matches of the 9-ball individuals in the first rounds. Then, the team competition will continue with the finals scheduled to begin at 22:00 CET.
All matches can be viewed LIVE at www.kozoom.com. 22 tables in HiRes quality are providing you with all the action of the event. You do not miss out one single match! Join today!
More information about participants, schedules, achievements, rankings, etc can be found on the event website www.epconline.eu.
The event is hosted by the European Pocket Billiard Federation EPBF and organized by International Billiard Promotion Foundation IBPF.
