BRANDENBURG - The Dutch billiard player Erik Vijverberg could finally celebrate his first major title in the artistic discipline. At the European championship in Brandenburg, the 52-year-old prison guard from Almelo won the gold medal in the final against his countryman René Dericks on Saturday afternoon after a wonderful match, in which Vijverberg was 62 points behind and eventually triumphed 201-117. It was by far the finest moment in his billiard career. After his golden match, he was embraced by his wife and son. The emotions were still visible on his face when the new champion left the room to sign up for the doping test.
"It is the crowning glory after a lot of physical problems and years of fighting back to reach the top again", was Vijverberg's first reaction, embracing a long row of fans in the arena where he just won the European title. It was his first major success after one second place at the 2012 World championship in Samsun, where the Turk Serdar Gümüs became world champion. The Dutch final was very special, but even better was the fact that two friends, training buddies and team mates faced each other in that match. They both survived the wear and tear of the race, in which first the reigning champion Serdar Gümüs and later major contenders like Michael Hammen, Walter Bax, Sander Jonen, Jean Reverchon, Erik Vervlier, Eric Daelman and Jop de Jong were eliminated.
Michael Hammen, one of the top favorites, had to leave the tournament after an unfortunate loss against Sergio Sanchez, in which the Frenchman reached a level of 87.586 percent against the Spaniard 66.964. Other high scores in the tournament were the run of 85 by the young German Marvin Heinrich and 82 by Erik Vervliet in the preliminaries. The Frenchman Michael Hammen achieved the highest percentage, 0.770 percent, but only finished in 9th place.
The later winner Erik Vijverberg, who plays artistic since 2006, and the other finalist René Dericks, grew to their best level on the final day. Vijverberg among others shone in the quarterfinals against Bernd Singer (151-93) and defeated German Heinrich in the semi-finals 106-115. René Dericks beat Thomas Ahrens 206-137 and in the semi-final Kevin Tran 203-86. In the final, Dericks took a big lead (69-17), but Vijverberg's final sprint was amazing and led to a big gap at the finish (201-117, percentage of the winner 65.00).
"Yes, it is remarkable of course that two Dutch players are in in the final from a country with around 25 or 30 artistic players. But it all came together this year. We are both in good form, we have practiced very often for it and the top form was there at the best moment", Vijverberg concluded.
The final result of the European championship artistic (points, percent, highest series):
1 Erik Vijverberg (Netherlands) 1063-0.66-83
2 René Dericks (Netherlands) 986-0.68-62
3 Kevin Tran (France) 754-0.59-80
4 Marvin Heinrich (Germany) 737-0.65-85
5 Erik Vervliet (Belgium) 618-0.73-82
6 Thomas Ahrens (Germany) 581-0.61-75
7 Hector Quadrado (Spain) 557-0.61-58
8 Sergio Sanchez (Spain) 499-0.52-35
9 Michael Hammen (France) 439-0.77-55
10 Jean Reverchon (France) 499-0.58-58.
Erik Vijverberg after he scored his winning shot at the championship.