Danes and French play for title in biathlon at EC

VERDERIO - The Danish team with Lukas Mortensen and Jonas Søndergaard and the French with Nathan Duriez and Erian Herrebrecht play the final of the biathlon discipline tonight (Saturday) at 19:30. Two players per team are at the table, one in three-cushion, one in 5-pins. A match goes to 200 points. The Danes got into the final by winning against their country's second team with Daniel Kristianesen and Casper Østergaard (200-182). The French beat the Germans with Amir Ibraimov and Nick Haake 200-143. In the preliminary rounds, Italy 1 and 2, Turkey, Spain and the Netherlands, among others, were eliminated for a place on the podium.

The third day at the European Under-17 and Under-21 Championships starts with the final stage in the qualifiers of the European Under-21 three cushion championships. Defending champion Denizcan Akkoca plays this morning (Saturday) against Greek Christos Falangas, Amir Ibraimov plays an interesting match against Lukas Mortensen, Nathan Duriez meets Nikolaus Kogelbauer and Joris van 't Zelfden faces Mustafa Oguz Ceylan. The Belgian Nick Rosier awaits the showdown in his group after two games (wins and losses), in which Joris van 't Zelfden can only join the top two by a win over Ceylan.

Dimitrios Seleventas, Sergio Martinez, Luis Pinto have already secured of a position as group winners. The highest in average for now is Nikolaus Kogelbauer with 1,250.

The 16 best players will go to matches for the last 16 at 2.45pm and 5pm. This Sunday is the final day at the European Championship and the under 21 players play first with the best eight (9.00), then the semi-finals (12.00) and the final at 15.00.

The final qualifiers in the under-17 three-cushion are today, Saturday, at 9.00, 10.45, 12.30 and 14.45. At stake is a place among the best eight in the quarter-finals. The semi-finals and final are on Sunday. Burak Hashas, the favorite for the title, plays today against Belgian Luca Philipoom (10.45) and at that time Bruno Martinez plays his last match against young Dutchman Joeri Wilkowski. Turkey's Samet Aygun provisionally leads the rankings with 6 match points and 1.500 ahead of Burak Hashas with 6 points and 1.442. Turk Kivanic Burkan Yildrim has only played two games and has 2.272 on average.

In 5-pins under 21, the semi-finals will be played at 12.30 between Emanuel Cucchiara and Jonas Søndergaard and at the other table between Federico Diciolla and Felix Schrobback. The under-21 free game gets its climax today with the final between Dutchman Nick Dudink, who remained unbeaten in his three preliminary round matches, and Frenchman Nathan Legendre. That final is at 7.30pm.

Turkish title defender Denizcan Akkoca in the under 21 three cushion