3-Cushion
ROMANS SUR ISÈRE - Maxime Panaia is the winner of the second national three-cushion tournament in France. The tournament was played in Romans sur Isère. For Panaia, it was his second win in 2024 after the first in Dijon. In the final, Panaia won over Cédric Melnytschenko 40-35 in 41 innings.
The podium was completed by Julien Gaucher and Kévin Vasseur. Gaucher was defeated in the semi-final by Melnytschenko 19-40 in 36 innings and Vasseur lost to Panaia 40-16 in 31
At the end of the group stage in the main tournament, five players had a total of four points, or two wins. Ghani Refassi led the way with 1.372 (ahead of Vincent Lelièvre and Alexis Rouaud), Kevin Vasseur followed with 1.296 (ahead of Patrice Pinard and Hector Echeverry), Nathan Duriez with 1.206 (ahead of Jean Reverchon and Marc Vitse), Julien Gaucher with 1.076 (winner of Fabrice Puigvert and Jérôme Barbeillon) and Frédéric Roelants with 0.909 (ahead of Vahit Kunt and Xavier Clausse).
Three players qualified with 2 match points: Maxime Panaia with 1.064 (ahead of JC Roux and Tangui Duriez), Mikael Devogelaere with 1.030 (ahead of Thierry de Marchi and Jérôme Galerne) and Cédric Melnytschenko with 0.983 (ahead of Frédéric Beghin and Steve Dorard).
In the quarter-finals, Melnytschenko won vs Refassi 40-35 in 38, Vasseur beat Devogelaere 40-28 in 20 (best individual of the tournament with 2,000), Panaia beat Nathan Duriez 40-38 in 38 and Gaucher beat Roelants 40-35 in 35.
Ghani Refassi in 7th place had the best run with 13 and a strong game with 1,667, while Nathan Duriez in 6th place had a game with 1,842. Fabrice Puigvert (average 1,226) came 9th with the best total score.