Team Poland
Poland claimed the team gold at the 2022 Dynamic Billard European Pool Championships Seniors as they battled hard to get past a strong Italian team, winning 2-1 in the final match. Wins for Tomasz Bak and Dominik Zajac gave them the two necessary points to secure gold medals. The victory was all the sweeter as Poland had been beaten by Italy in the Winners’ Qualification round.
The disciplines were 8-ball, 9-ball and 10-ball and three matches were Dawid Jedrzejczak v Giuseppe Iacobucci (8-ball), Tomasz Bak v Riccardo Sini (9-ball) and Dominik Zajac v Andrea Grosso (10-ball). The name of the game was to try and stay in the match in the early stages and then come on strong in the closing straight.
At the halfway stage, Italy led in two of the three matches and Poland in the other. Iacobucci was 4-0 up in the 8 ball and Grosso 3-1 to the good in the 10-ball. With two wins determining the destination of the golds, Italy were in the ascendancy.
A few games later the pendulum swung in the other direction as Zajac sped past Grosso, winning four racks on the bounce to take a 5-3 lead and put Poland in the driving seat. 20 minutes later, the situation had changed as Jedrzejczak clawed some racks back but still trailed 5-3 to Iacobucci, and in the other two matches, Poland led by two in the 9 ball and Zajac and Grosso were all square in the 10-ball. It was anyone’s match.
With the match finely poised, it was hard to keep track of where the title may have been headed but Iacobucci was the first player over the line as he won his 8-ball match, beating Jedrzejczak 7-3. Poland led in the other two by four and two racks respectively so it was theirs to lose.
Shortly after Zajac completed his comeback against Gross, winning 7-5 to level the match up at 1-1, leaving it down to Sini and Bak to determine who would be champions. Bak was 7-3 up and at the table as he worked his way through the balls. Seizing the opportunity, the Pole held his nerve to run out an 8-3 winner and set off whoops of joy from his thrilled team mates.
This was Poland’s second appearance at the European Seniors and they went two better than their team bronze in 2021. In addition to the three players competing in the final, gold also went to team mate Roman Wasilewski, who registered a fine win the early stages of the tournament.
Commented Dominik Zajac, “One more year experience and we were really motivated and wanted more than the bronze. That was great last year but this year we have gold. What can I say? We’re all very happy!”
His team mate Tomasz Bak, who potted the winning ball, added, “We’re old but still young in the mind! We’re so happy to play for the team and I think that’s where the power comes from for us. We’re friends and that helped us get the gold. I’ve trained 30 years for this! It was a long day so we’re going to relax a bit!”
Bronze medals were won by Sweden and last year’s champions, Portugal.
The 2022 Dynamic Billards European Championship Seniors and Ladies comprises nine separate events across four disciplines – 8, 9 and 10 ball as well as straight pool for men and teams.
Play continues later on Thursday with action in both the mens’ and ladies’ 8-ball divisions.
All matches can be viewed live at www.kozoom.com as well as selected matches on the EPBF’s Facebook page.
Results, live scoring and draws are available at
www.epbf.com/tournaments/europ
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