RANDERS - The two Belgian participants at the European Championship 5-pins in Randers, Denmark, have both reached the best sixteen of the tournament. Belgian champion Gianluca Memmi from Brussels plays in the next knock-out round against Christophe Duvernoy from France, Peter Debaes from Roeselare is in the last sixteen against Dane Rene Hendriksen.
The best sixteen of the European Championship, which is played in the Ridehuset, Vaerket theatre in Randers and started with 48 of Europeans best players, will not be known until the end of Friday evening. The four Italian top favorites, the champion Andrea Quarta, Michelangelo Aniello, Paolo Marcolin and Achille Mignolo will still come into action in the round with the best 32. The Dutch champion Ernst Jan Driessen survived the first round in a group with 3 players, the other Dutchman Marius Kroonen was eliminated.
Belgian Peter Debaes was surprisingly on top of the ranking after the first preliminaries with 48 players, including the Italians Aniello and Mignolo, the French Florian Guingand and Christophe Duvernoy and the Italians Marcolin and Quarta. Peter Debaes, this Friday night: ''I certainly didn't expect this result, but I had a bit of luck with the draw and I first won against Czech Vit Pechman 60-18 and 60-13 and then against Spaniard Carlos Cortes 60-21 and 60-37. Therefore, I had the best score of the sixteen winners''.
Within the sixteen winners, eight players reached the six set points thanks to two 2-0 scores. Peter Debaes finished with a 2.970 average, Michelangelo Aniello 2.286, Achille Mignolo 2.202 and Florian Guingand 2.143.
Peter Debaes (57), as the number 1, faced the number 32 in the next round: the Belgian was the better of German Christopher Schock 3-2 after a 2-0 deficit and a 60-55 score in the deciding fifth set. For the first time at a European or World Championship, the four-time Belgian champion is therefore among the best sixteen players. Gianluca Memmi, an Italian who lives in Brussels, accompanies Debaes in the last sixteen. Of the Danish home players Kasper Kristoffersen has also made it to the best sixteen by a victory against Henrik Ryholt.
The best sixteen players after the first preliminaries in the groups with 3 were:
1 Peter Debaes (Belgium)
2 Michelangelo Aniello (Italy)
3 Achille Mignolo (Italy)
4 Florian Guingand (France)
5 Christophe Duvernoy (France)
6 Paolo Marcolin (Italy)
7 Andrea Quarta (Italy)
8 Alessandro Sticco (Czech Republic)
9 Henrik Søndergaard (Denmark)
10 Erling Sjørup (Denmark)
11 Johnni Pedersen (Denmark)
12 Gianluca Memmi (Belgium)
13 Henrik Ryholt (Denmark)
14 Thomas Jaeger (Denmark)
Max Gabel (Germany)
16 Marius Kroonen (Netherlands).
All the matches are live on kozoom.