The Gold and Silver Medallists in the men’s division from last year’s European Championships in Vale do Lobo, Portugal, Poland and The Netherlands are already eliminated at this year’s Dynamic Billard European Championships in St. Johann i.Pg., Austria. The Netherlands lost their women’s team as well.
The Polish and Dutch teams belong to the highly favored candidates for the title in the men’s division over the last years. This year, things did not go their way at all. The Dutch team suffered a defeat against strong team Russia in the first winner’s round. Only Niels Feijen was able to win the 8-ball with 8:4 over Maksim Dudanets. Macro Teutscher lost 3:8 to Ruslan Chinakhov in 10-ball while Nick van den Berg lost 8:9 to Konstantin Stepanov after he was already 7:3 up in that match. That loss took the Dutch team to the loser’s side where they barely stayed alive against outsider Hungary with 2:1. Ivo Aarts and again Niels Feijen took their matches while Nick van den Berg again proved to be the weak link in the team. Strangely enough, van den Berg is the only Dutch medal winner so far this week but in the team competition he seemed to struggle to find his game. The next round, the Dutch met team Slovakia. The Netherlands were highly favored in that encounter. But again, Feijen was the only one able to win his match with 9:1 in 9-ball over Jaroslav Polach. Marc Bijsterbosch lost the 10-ball with 5:8 to Balazs Koeles and van den Berg succumbed with 4:8 in 8-ball against Jakub Koniar. That defeat was completely unexpected and the Dutch team surely had higher expectations for themselves.
Just like The Netherlands, team Poland has exited the draw in the men’s competition. The defending Champions won their first match 2:0 over Greece but then fell with 1:2 to team Sweden. On the loser’s side, the Polish were defeated 2:1 by team Austria. The quarterfinals will be played tonight between the following teams:
Sweden vs Slovakia
Germany vs Portugal
Spain vs Finland
Russia vs Austria
In the women’s division, the Russian ladies have done their homework. The defending Champions defeated Italy 2:0 and Belgium 2:1 after a shootout. These victories booked them a seat in the semifinals. The other team already there is team Norway. They remained the upper hand over Spain 2:0 and Austria 2:1, also after a shootout. Teams The Netherlands and Spain are already eliminated in the women’s competition. The Dutch lost 1:2 to Poland while Spain lost 1:2 to Germany. The loser’s qualification round is played tonight together with the men’s quarterfinals. There, the following teams will joust:
Germany vs Belgium
Poland vs Austria
Today the tournament switched to 8-ball individuals at 13:00 CET. The quarterfinals in the teams will be played at 20:00.
The Championships are played on 24 tables which will all be streamed LIVE throughout the whole event. In order to be able to follow all the action LIVE, premium membership can be purchased at www.kozoom.com. Once a premium membership is held, all events for the respective period of time can be viewed LIVE. Additionally, a huge video gallery is contained in the website.
The event will be 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.epconline.eu, visit us on Facebook or check out our youtube channel for regular news clips or contact our press office press@epbf.com.