The first day of the Dynamic Billard European Championships for Youth in Golden Tulip Jagershorst Hotel in Leende, The Netherlands, did not provide any surprises up until the single elimination rounds.
The discipline straight pool is only played in the Under 17 and Under 19 division. In both fields, the defending Champions were among the players. This is not always the case since due to reaching the respective age limit, the U17 and U19 tournaments Champions. However, not today. In the Under 17, Wiktor Zielinski (POL) is the defending Champion. He had a very impressive record today. Clear victories over Moritz Neuhausen (GER) with 75:36 and Paul Vilches-Pardo (FRA) with 75:0 (!) underlined his ambitions to defend his title. In the round of the last 16 players tonight, Zielinski met Ole-Kristian Rudhavn (NOR). Again, the young Polish wasted no time and defeated his opponent from Norway with 75:42 to enter the stage of the quarter-finals in the straight pool competition. They will be played tomorrow morning at 09:00 CET.
Another hot favourite for the title in the U17 is Sanjin Pehlivanovic (BIH). The young Bosnian took the bronze medal in last year’s U17 competition. With victories over Alexandar Georgiev (BUL) 75:3, Davide Sini (ITA) 75:22 and Tomasz Krysztofik (POL) 75:13, Pehlivanovic joined Zielinski in the quarter-finals tomorrow.
In the Under 19, the defending Champion is Patrick Hofmann (GER). He took 4 out of 5 possible titles last year in Tirana and was the absolute dominating star in the U19. This year, he is also on his mission for maintaining his title. However, his way was not as much of a walk in the park as Zielinski’s. He outplayed Osman Sanlisoy (TNC) 100:90 in his first match and then took down Federico Amendola (ITA) 100:75. In the next round, Hofmann encountered his teammate Kevin Schiller. He took a quick and comfortable 88:38 lead over Schiller, before he allowed his teammate to the table again. Hofmann missed a relatively easy ball in the side pocket and gave second life to his opponent. What he did not know then was that Schiller would not let him back to the table again in this match. Schiller ran 62 balls on Hofmann and dethroned the defending Champion, kicking him out in the round of the last 16 players single elimination.
Other favourite players for the title in the U19 are definitely Fedor Gorst (POL), Jan Van Lierop (NED) and Atlantic Challenge Cup winner Daniel Maciol (POL). While Maciol defeated Ilia Nekleenov (RUS) 100:60, Gorst and van Lierop faced one another in the round of the last 16 players. Today, van Lierop was the stronger player since Gorst missed too many shots. In the end, van Lierop took the match with 100:44 over the Russian.
Every day, one match from the events will be shown LIVE on the Facebook page of the EPBF. All Facebook users may check out the high standard of quality which is provided for all the events and see what the Kozoom members receive all the time. You can see all the matches live via www.kozoom.com who stream the whole event on 23 tables on the internet LIVE. The FB live matches are announced on the EPBF Facebook page around noon every day. Results and schedules can be found at www.europeanpoolchampionships.eu so why not come and check out all the LIVE action of the Dynamic Billard European Championships for Youth starting Monday July 31st at 09:00h CET.
The event is 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 federation website www.europeanpoolchampionships.eu, visit us on Facebook or check out our youtube channel for regular news clips or contact our press office press@epbf.com.
