ANKARA – There were rare moments of weakness and stress that befell Therese Klompenhouwer in the final. The match at the end of the European lady’s championship was unrecognizable, the average underwhelming and rarely was she so vulnerable at the billiards tabel. But in the end, the Dutch billiard star grabbed the title again this Friday afternoon at the European three cushion race in Ankara, Turkey. The fist went up triumphantly after the winning carom. Therese thus captured her 11th championship out of a total of 11 European tournaments. That relief prevailed…, not the feeling of a disappointing final. The result of that final: 30-22 in 51 innings.
The opposition of Belgium's Jaimie Buelens was unexpectedly threatening, just until halfway through the final. Therese played far below her level, even hovering below averages of 0.500, and later had to admit that this European title was the most hard-fought of the 11 she won in total, in a championship in which almost all participants failed to impress.
Therese was, for her part also struggling, yet again the best of all with big matches against Karina Jetten in the quarter-finals (30-9 in 16, 1.875) and a very solid semi-final against Estela Cardoso (30-17 in 27, 1.111). The performance in the final contrasted poignantly with that, as 30 in 51 is not Therese's, far from it.
Afterwards, Therese searched in vain for excuses, but simply confessed: ’’I didn't feel the right energy, didn't have the right stroke and all things were against me, as it felt. At one point, a certain doubt set in: am I going to attack, do I just want to score points, or should I defend, now that things are not really going well. It continued to be laborious, what I was doing was really not good. But I kept going, because of course I absolutely wanted to win. After all, as European champion I may go to the World Games in China next year. I still rewarded myself, with that run of seven I was able to run away at the end. Still happy with the title, of course.''
Jaimie Buelens initially seemed to take advantage of that weakness, as she was ahead 14-10 and 24-21. The stress became too much for the Belgian in the closing stages, where she almost did not score anymore and Therese had the chance to add her 11th title to her impressive record.
The final best 16 after the preliminary rounds of this European Championship were Therese Klompenhouwer, Ioanna Kormpi, Mélanie Hallier, Karina Jetten, Estela Cardoso, Yenny Battner, Charlotte Sörensen, Angeliki-Savvina Skolarikou, Steffi Träm, Karolien Matthys, Güzin Mujde Karakasli, Nanna Peters, Jaimie Buelens, Monique Wilkowski, Gülsen Degener and Helga Mitterböck.
