Saturday, March 26, 2011: Probably the biggest surprise in the 8-ball competition so far. Ruslan Chinahov (RUS), who has 5 Gold medals in Junior European Championships, a bronze and a silver medal in Men's European Championships and has won the 2009 9-ball World Championships for juniors, fell to the sharp blade of underdog Andreas Georgiou from Cyprus with 6:8. Georgiou, who had his first appearance in last year's EC, has not won any titles or medals yet. Still, he was a tough challenge for Chinahov. The player from Cyprus was leading with 5:1 and 6:2 in the set when Chinahov got started. He drew the match at 6:6 when Georgiou managed to win two more games and caused the sensation.
Another unexpectedly clear result was Artem Koshovyi's (UKR) 8:2 victory over “Napoleon” Marcus Chamat from Sweden. Chamat made an avoidable mistake when the score was 5:2 in favour of the young Ukrainian. Koshovyi made it 6:2. Then, Chamat scratched on the break and Koshovyi ran out this and then next game to win the match 8:2.
Tonight's straight pool finalist Tomasz Kaplan (POL) received a 5:8 defeat against “The machine” Oliver Ortmann (GER).
In the women's division, Rachelle Meyer (LUX) got slightly overpowered by Sara Rocha (POR) with 5:6. The match was always as tight as possible. No player was able to gain a two-game advantage at any time. In the end, it was Rocha to leave the arena as the winner, sending Meyer to the “bad” side of the bracket.
In the wheelchair division, the all-German clash between Tankred Volkmer and Manfred Gattinger ended 5:4 in Volkmer's favour after he has been trailing 4:1.
The event will be 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 event website www.epconline.eu or contact our press office.
