VERDERIO - The European under-21 and under-17 billiards championships in various disciplines have completed the first of four days of play. The under-21 biathlon teams, in which one player is on three cushion and one on 5-pins, have already reached the semi-finals. The German pair with Amir Ibraimov (three-cushion) and Nick Haake (5-pins) beat the favorite Italians and face France with Nathan Duriez and Erian Herrebrecht in the semi-finals. The other semi-final is between the two Danish teams with Lukas Mortensen and Jonas Söndergaard playing Daniel Kristiansen and Casper Østergaard. The Euro Youth is played in Verderio, Italy.
The other five teams in biathlon were eliminated in the preliminary rounds, including the Turks, Dutch and Spanish. The Dutch team with Joris van 't Zelfden and Marius Kroonen did win its first match against Spain 200-198, but was eliminated by Denmark 1 200-107. The semi-finals are this Friday at 5.15pm, the final is Saturday at 7.30pm.
The most appealing discipline, the under-21 players' three-cushion at the match table, only starts at 9am tomorrow, Friday, with the first two sessions including Amir Ibraimov, Nathan Duriez, Dimitrios Seleventas, Denizcan Akkoca, the defending champion, Lukas Mortensen and Nikolaus Kogelbauer. Dutchman Joris van 't Zelfden and Belgian Nick Rosier will meet at 9am on Friday morning.
For the field of 15 under-17 players, who are playing the European Championship at the small table, the tournament is already 10 matches underway. The 15 are divided into three groups of five, from which the top two and the best two numbers three qualify for the quarter-finals. Belgian Luca Philipoom (15) and Dutchman Joeri Wilkowski (12) opened the event against each other. The Belgian won 25-9 in 23, but made a big misstep in his second game against German Christos Kisniarov, which Philipoom lost 25-6 in 22 innings (averages 1.136/0.272).
Joeri Wilkowski was defeated in his second match by top favorite Burak Hashas 25-7 in 21 innings. Spaniard Arturo Daniel Zotov leads after the first day with 2 match points and 1.190 ahead of two other Spaniards, Toni Garcia, Bruno Martinez with 1.190 and 1.041. On the late evening, Toni Garcia played the best match with 1.470 on average. Tomorrow, Friday, the tournament continues from 9am.
The four under-21 players played a first match in free game. Frenchman Nathan Legendre won against his countryman Arthur Picard 300-5 in 7 innings (run 77), Dutchman Nick Dudink was the better of Belgian Samuel Vanderveken 200-117 in 13 (run 74).