ANKARA - The double gold for European nation teams in three cushion goes to Turkey this year. The ladies returned with gold from Aarhus last week, the Turkish men completed the European success at home. Tayfun Tasdemir (49) and Berkay Karakurt (30) became champions in Ankara in front of their home crowd in the final against Greece: 3-1 in match points. The Turkish triumph was celebrated exuberantly at the organizing federation centre, where the country tournament over two days was the run-up to the individual European championship, which starts on Thursday.
The Turkish winners, who had started the tournament as Turkey 2, proved unbeatable on the final day, where they first overpowered the Netherlands 2 with magnificent averages (team total 2.580, run 19), then beat the first Dutch team, the reigning world champions, in the semifinals and finally overcame the Greeks in the match for European gold. For Tasdemir, it was his first European nation title after three world titles with Turkey in Viersen (2011, 2022 and 2023). Berkay Karakurt captured his first major title with his homeland Turkey.
The Greeks, who clinched the European title in 2023, made another bid for power. Nick Polychronopoulos and Kostas Kokkoris pulled off a Greek coup when they barred the second team from their country with Kostas Papakonstantinou and Dimitrios Seleventas in the semifinals the unexpected way to European glory. The score was 2-0 with 1,454 for Greece 1 and 1,327 for Greece 2.
The final between the two southern European neighbours was decided in the match between Berkay Karakurt and Kostas Kokkoris. Tasdemir and Polychronopoulos played to a draw in an enthralling final, in which the Greek came up with 2 caroms on 40-40. Then, it came down to the other match table, where Berkay Karakurt made a fantastic come-back at 22-9 down against Kokkoris, took the lead for the first time at 29-25 and decided the match 40-32 in 30 innings.
The European championship went into the preliminary rounds with 24 countries from which the group winners from eight groups advanced to the knockouts, the quarter-finals. By far the best game in the final stage was Turkey's 4-0 win over Netherlands 2 with averages for Tasdemir 2.666 and Karakurt 2.500. Tasdemir made the highest run of the tournament in his match: 19. Netherlands-Belgium was also a high-class match, in which Dick Jaspers and Eddy Merckx played a draw (Merckx with a final equalizing run of 11) and Jean Paul de Bruijn won by 1 carom difference against Peter Ceulemans. The Netherlands won the match with a total of 80 caroms, the Belgians had to go home with 79 caroms.
The four final players: right the Turks with Tayfun Tasdemir and Berkay Karakurt, left the Greeks with Nick Polychronopoulos and Kostas Kokkoris
The final ranking at the European Championships in Ankara:
- Turkey 10-1,818-19
- Greece 1 7-1,358-13
- Netherlands 1 5-1,738-13
- Greece 2 5-1,386-9
- Germany 4-1,376-11
- Belgium 4-1,593-11
- France 4-1,509-14
- Netherlands 2 3-1,246-7
Tayfun Tasdemir in the finals in a great pose
The winners surrounded by the Turkish billiard family in Ankara
Greek emotiion: routined Kostas Papakonstantinou and young talent Dimitrios Seleventas
The Turkisch team, the new European champioen, beat the Netherlands, the world champion. Left to right Berkay Karakurt, Tayfun Tasdemir, Dick Jaspers, Jean Paul de Bruijn
The Belgians Eddy Merckx and Peter Ceulemans: a painful loss on 1 carom against Netherlands