Saturday, April 02, 2011: The 2011 EPBF European 10-ball Champions are Jasmin Ouschan (AUT), Stephan Cohen (FRA) and Jouni Tahti (FIN).
In the men's final, two players met with a long history in European pocket billiards. Stephan Cohen and Radoslaw Babica (POL) faced off for the title. In the first racks, Cohen took control with his safety play, leaving Babica with nothing but kick shots. Cohen took an early 4:1 lead over Babica, but then the tide turned and Babica suddenly got the better breaks and won rack after rack. Babica took a 6:4 lead over Cohen, when Lady Luck turned on him. Babica scratched on the break and Cohen took control, taking a 7:6 lead. With Cohen on the hill, Babica came to the table to break. He had no position after the break and another safety battle evolved. Babica found himself with a long but possible shot on the 8-ball. He pocketed the 8 and the cue ball scratched. Cohen went to the table, pocketed the two remaining balls and seized the title of European Champion.
Jasmin Ouschan was on a mission this week. She wanted to defend all four titles from last year but she lost in the 8-ball quarter-finals. So with that loss behind her, Jasmin entered the final arena and left no doubt how badly she wanted the 10-ball title. The match was pretty one-sided with Nataliya Seroshtan from Russia finding herself behind the 8-ball early as Ouschan took complete control and won her third title of the week 6:1.
The wheelchair final was a pretty clear issue. Jouni Tahti bowled over Henrik Larsson with a clear 5:1 victory. It was the two dominating wheelchair players of the week meeting in the “ultimate” final. Tahti had the 8-ball title under his belt while Larsson snatched the 9-ball title. So they came to the shootout at table 22. Tahti was ruling throughout the match, leaving no doubt that he wanted that title. Larsson had nothing to counter that, and in the end Tahti was the deserved winner of the final.
The finals:
Radoslaw Babica (POL) v Stephan Cohen (FRA) 6:8
Jasmin Ouschan (AUT) v Nataliya Seroshtan (RUS) 6:1
Jouni Tahti (FIN) v Henrik Larsson (SWE) 5:1
The Dynamic European Championships have drawn a huge amount of media attention throughout the entire 10 days. Many media representatives from TV, radio, print and internet media have covered the European Championships. The highlight was probably the 3 matches in the men's 9-ball division that were covered LIVE by Eurosport, broadcasting to 58 nations worldwide.
The arena saw between 150 and 300 spectators each day, watching the action in the Stahlpalast in Brandenburg a.d. Havel.
The most successful nation is Austria with 3 Gold, 2 Silver and 1 Bronze Medal.
The event was 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.
