Kuckherm, Pavlukhin and Seroshtan take the Gold Medals
Thursday, 04 August 2011: The European Champions in the 8-Ball division are Lars Kuckherm (GER) in the juniors, Vitaly Pavlukhin (RUS) in the pupils and Nataliya Seroshtan (RUS) in the girls division.
Lars Kuckherm defeated Wojciech Szewczyk (POL) with 7:2. The final match in the juniors division sounded very promising. Both players, Lars Kuckherm and his opponent Wojciech Szewczyk showed no mercy with their opponents so far today and played some ambitious pool. They made their opponents look like beginners. Now, they would meet: High Noon in Luxembourg. The match started accordingly. Lars Kuckherm broke and ran, and then his opponent failed to pocket a ball on the break. Kuckherm showed no mercy and ran the table again, taking a quick 2:0 lead over Szewczyk. Then something unexpected happened. In the third rack, both players missed easy shots and suddenly their confidence seemed to be a bit lowered. Szewczyk managed to snatch the rack, making the score 1:2 from his angle. He then broke but again no ball went down. And again, Kuckherm took no prisoners and ran the table. 3:1 for the German. The next rack, both players made some mistakes with Kuckherm winning it in the end, taking a 4:1 lead over Szewczyk. Szewczyk took a time out and came back to the table, breaking the balls with no ball going down again. From then on, no more mistakes were made which means that both players ran the table from then on and made all balls. The result was a clear victory for Lars Kuckherm with 7:2. “I am so happy that I finally took this title”, Kuckherm said quite emotionally after the match. When asked what the reason for his clear victory was, he stated “Wojciech’s break did not come. My break in this match was close to perfect and I really felt good”. “My first thought after pocketing the final 8-ball was that I have made it finally. Now I am going to the World Junior Championships to Poland later this year”. “But I also want to play well for the rest of the week, maybe getting another Gold Medal in 9-ball or the team’s event”.
In the pupils division, Vitaly Pavlukhin defeated Joshua Filler (GER) with 6:3. The setup for the match was very much alike in the juniors. Both players have played extremely well throughout the week. Filler took a quick lead over Pavlukhin and it looked like a done deal for him already when he missed the 8-ball at the score of 3:1. From then on, things did not work for Filler anymore while Pavlukhin became stronger. In the end, Pavlukhin did not allow Filler to take one more rack, winning 6:3. “I really thank my parents and my coach, Django, for making this all possible for me.”
In the girls division, Nataliya Seroshtan snatched the title from her teammate Darya Sirotina (RUS). Sirotina, who already won the 10-ball earlier this week, was playing on the 8-ball at a score of 4:4 when she missed it. Seroshtan, who thought she’d be already ousted, jumped back to the table cleared it and took the title in the girls division with 5:4.
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.
