ZEVENBERGEN - The young Spanish billiard talents can register a fantastic list of achievements at the European junior championships. It all started with Dani Sánchez in 1992, the last in the row of illustrious Spaniards is Antonio Montes, who took the title in Zevenbergen, Netherlands, today in the final against Frenchman Adrien Tachoire. The twenty year young Spaniard from Sant Adrià de Besòs, a suburb of Barcelona, showed up in the final as he did in the entire tournament. Technically and tactically strong, very solid and with an early lead after some short attacks at the start of the match.
Therefore, Montes was 14-9 ahead after twelve innings in the final match, he built it up to 18-9 and ran out to 20-10. He could consolidate the margin, although Tachoire came back to 22-17, but after 27-21 the Spaniard couldn't been threatened: the final score was 30-21 in 23 innings.
The very best player in the tournament was finally crowned with gold in the billiards center of Amorti: Antonio Montes finished 1.279 average over six matches. He was only in trouble in the group stage, when he faced Berkay Karakurt and won with one carom.
His Turkish opponent, who was announced a feared rival, then was eliminated in the semifinals by Adrien Tachoire, the Frenchman who took the win on one point including a run of seven (30-29 in 24 innings).
In the semifinals, Montes had a walkover, more or less, in his match against Wesley van Apers. The Belgian felt already happy to come so far in the tournament. He did it purely on fighting spirit. Against Montes, the long Belgian had to bow in the semifinals: 30-16 in 27 innings.
Antonio Montes has shared himself with his European title amongst illustrious and major Spanish talents. Dani Sánchez was the first in 1992 and took the title again in 1995. Then, Xavier Yeste followed in 1997, Ruben Legázpi in 2003, Javier Palazón in 2006, Antonio Ortiz in 2008, David Martinez in 2010 and Juan David Zapata in 2012.
The Spanish billiards school has been famous for years with Jose Maria Quetglas as a known coach. The Spaniard was not in Zevenbergen this time. Juan David Zapata, one of the recent winners: ,,Antonio is practicing the same as I do: many hours position playing and in matches with strong opponents.'' Moreover, he says, Antonio lives too far from Madrid to train there.''
The tournament ended in a painful disappointment for Berkay Karakurt after losing in the close finish against Tachoire. Also for Joao Ferreira from Portugal, one of the other favorites, the championship turned into a disillusion. He was eliminated in the preliminaries.
The Belgians did where they came for. Maybe Andy de Bondt earned more. He was not lucky with his draw in the quarter finals against Karakurt, however De Bondt couldn't really impress in that match. On the other hand, de Bondt managed to produce the highest run of the tournament (10).
Jordy de Kruijf reached the quarters: a wonderful result for the homeland, but then was killed by a small margin in his duel with Wesley van Apers.
The ranking with averages and runs:
1 Antonio Montes 1.279-6
2 Adrien Tachoire 0.898-7
3 Berkay Karakurt 1.198-9
4 Wesley van Apers 0.668-6
5 Sergio Aparicio 0.989-5
6 Andy de Bondt 0.850-10
7 Alexis Rouaud 0.758-6
8 Jordy de Kruijf 0.668-6
9 Joao Ferreira 0o.690-5
10 Adam Kozak 0.632-5
11 Patrick Butora 0.544-3
12 José Soares 0.673-5
13 Tobias Bouerdick 0.648-5
14 Tobias Schramm 0.531-4
15 Michael Vink 0.534-3
16 Saud Muharic 0.419-3.