Turkish gold race with Akkoca and Hashas

VERDERIO – Two Turkey's young players are the proud winners of the Europyouth championship for players under 21 and under 17. Denizcan Akkoca extended his title in the event for the oldest youth, Burak Hashas dominated another major championship and won the under 17 tournament. The Turks were even two-up in the under 21 final, where Akkoca won the final match against Abdullah Kaya 35-22 in 30. Burak Hashas won the under 17 tournament against Spaniard Bruno Martinez in the final: 30-19 in 19.

The 2023 Euro Youth Championship in Vernerio, Italy, concluded this Sunday with the last finals and was a huge success for all participants and countries. The three other winners except three cushion were the Danish team in biathlon, that beat France in the final, Frenchman Nathan Legendre, who won over Dutchman Nick Dudink in the free game final, and Italian Emanuel Cucchiara, who beat his countryman Federico Diciolla for gold in the 5-pins final.

The conclusion after the European Youth Championships may be that the southern countries dominated the tournament. The Turks and the Spaniards showed again that these countries are blessed with a lot of talents in three-cushion. The Turkish youngsters, with two on the under-21 podium and with two under-17s, made the best impression. Denizcan Akkoca finished with 12 match points and 1.151 ahead of Abdullah Kaya with eight points and 1.073. Greek Dimitrios Seleventas and Spaniard Marcos Morales took the bronze medal, both with 8 match points, Seleventas with 1.195, Morales with 1.178. The newly 17-year-old Burak Hashas seems to be quietly unbeatable in the youth classes, both in the world and European tournaments. The Turkish youngster finished the winner with 14 match points in the under 17 and 1.484 on average ahead of Bruno Martinez with 10 points and 1.145, Toni Garcia with 10 points and 1.049 and Kivanc Burkan Yildrim with 8 points and 1.350 average.

The Spanish school, from which many talents already have found their way to the PBA in South Korea (Zapata, Martinez, Palazón, Mayor and Anguita), has yet another generation ready with Bruno Martinez, Toni Martin, Arturo Daniel Zotov in the youngest category and Marcos Morales, Daniel Sainz-Pardo and Sergio Martinez in the under-21 class.

The explanation for that flow of talents may be that the Spanish' internal training at Los Alcazares perfectly combines sport and study. The Turkish federation has its plans to move towards such a structure as well. Burak Hashas said after he won his next title: ''We don't have our own trainer/coach, we are trained by private trainers.'' Dutch billiards president Paul Brekelmans, who also travelled to this EC with young players, noted: ''The fact is that in these successful countries they meet a lot of government support for sport, training and study.''

In the top ten of the under-21 three-cushion competition, apart from Turks and Spaniards, there were only successes for Dimitrios Seleventas (Greece), Nikolaus Kogelbauer (Austria), Goncalo Santos (Portugal), Nick Rosier (Belgium) and Joris van 't Zelfden (Netherlands). Other than Turks and Spaniards in the top ten of the under 17 were Christos Kisniarov (Germany), Jakob Ide (Germany), Toon Bollansee and Luca Philipoom (Belgium).

On the final day under 21, Denizcan Akkoca won in the semi-finals against Dimitrios Seleventas 35-27 in 25 and Abdullah Kaya against Marcos Morales 35-32 in 36. The final victory went to Akkoca, who beat Kaya 35-22 in 30. In the under-17, Burak Hashas was the winner in the Turkish semi-final against Kivanc Burkan Yildrim 30-7 in 14 and Bruno Martinez won against Toni Garcia 3o0-19 in 29. The final win went to Burak Hashas, who beat Bruno Martinez 30-19 in 19.

The under-21 free game final between Nathan Legendre and Nick Dudink was won by the Frenchman 250-21 in 8. The Frenchman led in the final standings with 6 match points and 22.37 ahead of Dudink with 6 match points and 14.78. The Danish team with Lukas Mortensen and Jonas Søndergaard won the final in the biathlon (three-cushion/5-pins) against the French Nathan Duriez and Erian Herrebrecht 200-124.

The European three cushion under 21 podium with the winnaar Denizcan Akkoca

The European under 17 podium with the winner Burak Hashas

The Danish winners of the biathlon (three cushion and 5-pins)

Turkish multiple winner Burak Hashas on his way to another international victory

The Italian sports director Luca Marzio Garavaglia did a fantastic job with his people at the Euro youth: the referees, coming from 5-pins only, did all the matches in three cushion and free game