BAD WILDUNGEN - The joy 44-year-old Cengiz Karaca showed after his second point in the shoot-out of the German three cushion final was filled with emotion. The Berliner, driven by adrenaline, ran with his cue in hand around the billiard table after his victory. It was undoubtedly the most emotional moment in 9 days of German championship all disciplines in Bad Wildungen.
The two finalists, Hakan Celik and Cengiz Karaca, came to the finish after 37 innings, a shoot-out had to decide the new German champion in three cushion. Cengiz Karaca had a giant lead of 26-9 in the regular match, but his German teammate in BC International started a catch-up race and joined his opponent after a run of 10. Karaca had to score twice for the draw and for the first time in Bad Wildungen a shoot-out was needed to make the decision. Celik started and made the break, but missed his second position. Karaca got a much better position and scored the point that brought him the championship.
It was the first German title for Berliner Cengiz Karaca, who was the successor to the big favourite Martin Horn. The recent World Cup winner lost in the semi-finals to Celik 40-35 in 25 innings. With Karaka, Celik and Horn, three BC International players from Berlin were on stage. The fourth player was Lukas Stamm, who also comes from Berlin, but played for Billardakademie Berlin.
Defending champion Martin Horn was eliminated by Hakan Celik, but impressed in the preliminary stage, in which he beat among others Markus Schönhoff (40-32 in 25) and Lukas Stamm in the group match 30-16 in 12 with a highest run of 16.
Cengiz Karaca beat Lukas Stamm in the semi-finals 40-29 in 35. Stamm defeated Dustin Jäschke on Saturday-evening in the quarter finals 40-32 in 37.