Three more Gold Medals have been awarded at the Dynamic Billard European Championships Youth in Hotel Bernadin in Portoroz, Slovenia.
In the Under 17’s, Maksim Dudanets (RUS) defeated Eklent Kaci (ALB) in the final with 6:3. Kaci had been a serious outsider. But nevertheless he had earned his place in this final against Dudanets. Victories over Jan van Lierop (NED) with 6:3, Marsel Safiullin (RUS) with 6:4 and young Kestutis Zadeikis (LIT) with 6:1 paved his way into the final match. His opponent however was the clear favorite. Dudanets ousted Patrick Hofmann (GER) 6:0, Konrad Kleinszmit (POL) 6:3 and Wiktor Zielinski (POL) with 6:5 on his way to the championship match. There, Dudanets gained a quick and comfortable 5:1 lead over Kaci. That gap was too big for the young Albanian to close. He managed to pull back two more racks from Dudanets to turn the score to 5:3. In the 9th rack, Kaci committed an unnecessary clothing foul and gave ball in hand to Dudanets. The Russian used his opportunity and played a combination shot 5 to 10 to win the rack and the match with 6:3.
In the under 19’s, Joshua Filler (GER) again was playing in his own class. He eliminated brave Daniel Tangudd (SWE) clearly with 7:2 in the final match. The match was over in an hour and 10 minutes. Filler seems to be too dominant in his division so far. It is going to be interesting to see if he can be stopped throughout the event and by whom.
In the girls division, Kamila Khodjaeva (BEL) snatched the title with a 5:2 victory over Ana Gradisnik (SLO). It is Khodjaeva’s final year in the girls division and a gold medal is definitely a ver nice finish.
On a side note, it can be remarked that 12 semi-finalists today represented 11 different nations. That shows how tight the competition is in European youth billiards.
Earlier today, the 8-ball competition was started. The defending Champions are Joshua Filler (GER) in the Under 17’s, Daniel Tangudd (SWE) in the Under 19’s and Veronika Ivanovskaia (GER) in the girls division. Filler left the Under 17’s and Ivanovskaia left the girls division, both for age reasons. So Tangudd was the only „real“ defending Champion in the 8-ball discipline.
In the girls division, probably the two toughest matches were the encounters in the first winner’s round between Ana Gradisnik (SLO) and Nataliya Seroshtan (RUS) and the match between Marion Winkler (AUT) and Anita Sochacka (POL). Gradisnik capitalized from a bad mistake that Seroshtan committed in the final rack. At 4.4, Seroshtan missed a very makable 8-ball. She brought Gradisnik back to the table who took the rack and the match with 5:4. Marion Winkler dominated Sochacka in her match and remained the upper hand with 5:3 to proceed to the winner’s qualification round.
In the Under 17’s division, things went according „the book“. No upsets happened. Maksim Dudanets (RUS) will face Nicolas Georgopoulos (GER) in the winner’s qualification round. A small surprise occurred when Sanjin Pehlivanovic (BIH) won both his opining matches to deal with Michal Muklewicz (POL) in the next round. Jan van Lierop (NED) and Daniel Maciol (POL) will also duel in the winner’s qualification round and only one of them can go through direct while the other one will be sent to the loser’s side of the draw. There is also an all-German clash in that round: Patrick Hofmann will play against his teammate Johannes Schmitt who both have a good chance for merits this year.
Also in the Under 19’s division, the „usual suspects“ have not shown any weaknesses yet. Daniel Tangudd (SWE) booked his seat in the Single elimination round of the last 32 player just as Oliver Szolnoki and Joshua Filler did, among others. Anton Zlatev (BUL) defeated Kristof Szentimrei (HUN) and Pawel Kaczmarek (POL) quite clearly and joined the other favorite players in the single elimination stage. Spasian Spasov (BUL) who had a great week so far lost to unheralded Sebastian Hladky (SLK) in his first round match with 3:7. He will get another chance to enter the single elimination round if he defeats Mattia Scodinu (SLK) tomorrow.
The Dynamic Billard European Youth Championships 2014 will continue tomorrowmorning at 09:00 CET with matches of the 8-ball individuals.
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.
