Karin Michl (GER) and Vegar Kristiansen (NOR) have won the Gold Medals in the 9-ball individuals at the Dynamic Billard European Championships for seniors and ladies.
Michl had to compete against Barbara Bolfelli (ITA) in the semi-final. She played rock solid and achieved a fully deserved 5:2 victory over the Italian top player. Her opponent in the final match, Anja Hehre (GER) ousted the defending Champion and teammate Susanne Wessel (GER) also with 5:2 in the semi-final. The final match between Michl and Hehre was packed with drama and excitement. After eight racks, the match went hill-hill. Then, Michl remained as focussed as one could get and pocketed ball after ball for a 5:4 victory and the title. „I have practiced a lot before I came here and I hoped for a chance to win a title, but I am absolutely overwhelmed that I have finally done it,“ said moved Michl after the match.
In the seniors division, we had a rematch between Kristiansen and Henrique Correia (POR). Earlier this week in the 10-ball competition, Correia won the final match between the two so Kristiansen was up for revenge now. The final match went back and forth. A few unlucky scratches from Correia brought Kristiansen in the lead. He kept that advantage and took the match and the title with 9:6. „I played great in 10-ball and I lost; I played great in 8-ball and I lost. In 9-ball, I played not so great but I have won the title“, said Kristiansen with a smile after the match.
In the team competition earlier today, the Dutch Team conquered the Gold Medal for the first time in years. They defeated team Finland in the final with 2:1. 15 teams have announced for the competition in total. The way for the Dutch team started with a 2:1 victory over team Sweden. the Scandinavians are usually known to show up with a strong contingency. However, this year the Dutch got the better of them. The next step was defeating team Italy 3:0 in the winners qualification round. Then, team Austria was the net opponent. They had a bit the statute of the „dark horses“ in the team competition since they ousted last year’s champion team Germany and favorite team Portugal one after the other. But the Dutch team, consisting of Rene Peeters, Gijs Van Helmond and Jesse Thehu prove again to be too strong for the Austrians. 3:0 was the clear result in favor of the Ducth team which booked them a seat in the final match. The opponent there was team Finland. The Finnish seniors with Sami Karttunen, Jouni Nykanen and Marko Hartikainen began their journey with a 2:1 victory over team Croatia. Then, their neighbors from Norway had to fall. 2:1 was again the final score in favor of the Finnish guys. In the winner’s qualification round, Finland surprisingly defeated team Portugal with 2:1. In the semi-final, team Italy was defeated with 2:1 by the Finnish. That booked them a seat in the final against the Dutch. The final match started quite furious. Jesse Thehu defeated Sami Karttunen in 10-ball extremely clear with 7:1 and brought the first point to The Netherlands. At this point in time, Rene Peeters was struggling against Marko Hartikainen in 9-ball. He had been in the lead but suddenly Hartikainen overtook him and it looked like he could snatch the match off Peeters. At a score of 6:5 for Hartikainen it was Gijs van Helmond who played an amazingly strong 8-ball match and sank the needed balls for the Dutch victory, defeating Jouni Nykanen with 7:4. The Gold Medal was won by the Dutch team. The Silver Medal went to team Finland. The Bronze medallists were team Italy and team Austria.
The final medal table displays Germany in the lead, followed by Portugal and Italy.
That concludes the coverage of the Dynamic Billard European Championships 2014 for Seniors and Ladies. We will be back with more action from Portoroz next week with the Euro-Tour for Men and Women.
More information about participants, schedules, achievements, rankings, etc can be found on the event website www.epconline.eu.
The event was hosted by the European Pocket Billiard Federation EPBF and organized by International Billiard Promotion Foundation IBPF.
