At the 2017 Dynamic Billard European Championships for Men, Women and Wheelchair Athletes in the Salgados Palace Hotel in Albufeira, Portugal, the Gold Medals in the 9-ball individuals have been awarded. Jouni Tahti (FIN), Kelly Fisher (GBR) and Ruslan Chinakhov (RUS) are the title holders for the next year.
In the men’s division, Ruslan Chinakhov played against Ronald Regli (SUI) in the final match. Both players have somehow already achieved a huge goal by reaching the final match since the two finalists are automatically qualified for this year’s World Games which will be held in Wroclaw, Poland. Chinakhov’s way into the final match led over Niels Feijen (NED) 9:5, Daniele Corrieri (ITA) 9:1, Alexander Kazakis (GRE) 11:5 and Konrad Juszczyszyn (POL) 11:9. His opponent Ronald Regli terminated Artem Koshovyi (UKR) 9:6, Konstantin Stepanov (RUS) 9:7, Nick Van Den Berg (NED) 11:9 and Maksim Dudanets (RUS) 11:9 for his seat in the match for glory. The final match itself was high class by both players with Chinakhov simply being better than Regli. The Russian know how to use his chances and how to put extra pressure on his opponent Regli. In the end, the clear result of 11:6 was more than deserved for Chinakhov.
Top eight Men:
1. Ruslan Chinakhov (RUS)
2. Ronald Regli (SUI)
3. Maksim Dudanets (RUS)
Konrad Juszczyszyn (POL)
5. Daniel Tangudd (SWE)
Nick van den Berg (NED)
Alexander Kazakis (GRE)
Andre Lackner (GER)
In the women’s division, Kelly Fisher was here on a mission. Residing in the United States since several years now, she wanted to try and get her foot in the door to play at the World Games. In order to do so, she needed to reach the final. Her mission did not begin too promising since she lost her opening match and had to make her long way into the final through the loser’s side. Making it back to the single elimination, Fisher eliminated Jasmin Ouschan (AUT) 7:2, Veronika Ivanovskaia (GER) 8:2 and Ina Kaplan (GER) 8:5. Her opponent in the final match was Nataliya Seroshtan (RUS). She overpowered Yini Gaspar (SUI), Ine Helvik (NOR) 8:2 and Ana Gradisnik (SLO) 8:5 for her spot against Fisher. Like in the men’s division, both players have booked their spot for this year’s World Games by making it to the final of the 9-ball individuals at the Dynamic Billard European Championships for Men, Women and Wheelchair Athletes in the Salgados Palace Hotel in Albufeira, Portugal. The final match was quite unspectacular though. Fisher was way too dominant for Seroshtan today to have a real match going on. After 12 racks being played, Fisher came out as the clear 8:4 winner over Seroshtan, claiming this year’s title in women’s 9-ball in Europe.
Top eight Women:
1. Kelly Fisher (GBR)
2. Nataliya Seroshtan (RUS)
3. Ina Kaplan (GER)
Ana Gradisnik (SLO)
5. Vivien Schade (GER)
Veronika Ivanovskaia (GER)
Ine Helvik (NOR)
Kristina Grim (GER)
In the wheelchair division, the final match turned out a one man show for Jouni Tahti or, vice versa, a disaster for Henrik Larsson (SWE) who was Tahti’s opponent. Tahti creamed Larsson to the max and handed him a doughnut, winning the final match 7:0 over Larsson.
Top eight Wheelchair Athletes:
1. Jouni Tahti (FIN)
2. Henrik Larsson (SWE)
3. Fred Dinsmore (IRL)
Kurt Deklerck (BEL)
5. Matt Duffy (GBR)
Roy Kimberley (GBR)
7. Kim-Ronny Nygard (NOR)
David Himpe (BEL)
Final medal table after 5 of 5 events:
After the quarterfinal matches today, two players in the men’s and two in the women’s division were randomly drawn and brought for testing against doping. The EPBF is conducting anti-doping tests since many years now and will continue to do so in order to fulfil the requests from the international umbrella federations for a clean sport.
This concludes the coverage of the Dynamic Billard European Championships for Men, Women and Wheelchair Athletes in the Salgados Palace Hotel in Albufeira, Portugal. Starting Thursday, we will be back with more news from the upcoming Dynamic Billard Portuguese Open and Portuguese Women Open.
