ATHENS – The final day at the Longoni junior tournament in Athens turns out into a Spanish festival of talents. Four Spaniards are among the top 8 players in the quarter-finals of the Longoni Next Gen for players under 21 today, Sunday. The other four finalists come from Germany, Belgium, France and Sweden.
Marcos Morales was the best in the round of 16 with 1.521 on average ahead of Amir Ibraimov with 1.458, Toni Garcia with 1.296, and Toon Bollansee with 1.129.
Three Spaniards and one Belgian eliminated the four Dutch players from the tournament. A notable winner was the Belgian Toon Bollansee who defeated the Belgian-Dutchman Luca Philipoom for the second time these days, this time with a comfortable score in the knockouts: 35-17 in 31/30 (1.129/0.566).
Marcos Morales bested Gilano Vloedmans 35-21 in 23 innings, Toni Garcia won against the Turk Engin ali Kozluca 35-18 in 27/26, and Amir Ibraimov against another Turk, Cinar Korkmaz, 35-15 in 24. The youngest Dutchman, Jayden van Buren, was a strong opponent for Arturo Zotov, the Spaniard won 35-29 in 34. Mio Svensson, a young Swede, defeated Kaan Demir 35-32 in 36, Tangui Duriez won against Gokalp Cebeoglu 35-28 in 38, and Bruno Martinez beat Joeri Wilkowski 35-20 in 40 innings.
The ranking in the top 16:
1 Morales 2-1.521-8
2 Ibraimov 2-1.458-11
3 Garcia 2-1.296-8
4 Bollansee 2-1.129-8
5 Zotov 2-1.029-4
6 Svensson 2-0.972-5
7 Duriez 2-0.921-6
8 Martinez 2-0.875-3
9 Kaan Demir 0-0.914-6
10 Vlodmans 0-0.913-3
11 Van Buren 0-0.852-6
12 Cebeoglu 0-0.756-4
13 Kozluca 0-0.692-5
14 Korkmaz 0-0.625-7
15 Philipoom 0-0.566-4
16 Wilkowski 0-0.500-5.
Quarter-final games:
Ibraimov-Svensson
Duriez-Morales
Zotov-Bollansee
Martinez-Garcia