On the second day of the European Brandenburg/Germany the event was officially opened. At a ceremony with numerous guests and various show acts, the President of the European Billiards Association CEB, Mr. Wolfgang Rittmann, spoke the awaited words and opened this major sporting event just outside Berlin. Other speakers included CEB Vice-President Farouk El Barky from Egypt, the Secretary for Education and Sport of the State of Brandenburg, Burkhard Jungkamp, as well as the mayor of the city of Brandenburg, Dr. Dietlind Tiemann.
Meanwhile the first decision of the tournament fell in the juniors 3-cushion tournament. Turkish favorite Ölmer Karakurt secured his gold medal by a 30:20-win after 28 innings. Silver went to the Spaniard Juan David Garcia Zapata, who had previously beaten Wesley van Apers from Belgium. The second bronze medal went to Zapata's fellow countryman David Martinez.
Today also the juniors Birilli-Event started. In two groups of four players the Italians showed their superiority and brought three athletes in the semi-finals. Only Danish Sebastien Skott could break into this phalanx while the two Germans Clemens Anger and Christopher Schock finished third in their group.
In the youth division the final four in the Libre-discipline are fixed. The outstanding Dutchmen Sam van Etten and Jim van de Zalm made it to the semis as well as Jason Petit (France) and Germans Tobias Bouerdick. The semi-finals will follow on Sunday.
The club-teams event in the youth division also started with the group stages today. The finals will be played on Sunday.
Furthermore the 47th CEB-Congress took place in Brandenburg. President Wolfgang Rittmann handed over a check of 3.000,00 Euro to the president of the French Billiards Federation, Mr. Jean-Paul Sinanian, for going new ways to promote the billiards-sport.
All results of the European Billiards Championships can be found on www.eurobillard.org under section “Calendar & Tournament Info” whilst all pictures and further media-information are published on www.touch-magazine.net
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