BRANDENBURG AN DER HAVEL - The European billiards championship in Brandenburg an der Havel highlights all disciplines of billiard sport from 25 April to 5 May. The mega-tournament combines all popular billiard disciplines in one event. In total, more than 500 athletes from 21 countries compete for the coveted European titles in eleven days in the Stahlpalast. All games are broadcast live by kozoom.com. The overall management is in the hands of CEB chairman Diane Wild. The general sports director and competition leader is Jean-Pierre Guiraud.
Kozoom reporter Frits Bakker brings previews of all tournaments during the championship.
Today, on the sixth day, the preview at the European championship one cushion on Tuesday and Wednesday.
BRANDENBURG - The title holder Frédéric Caudron will not participate in this European championship one cushion in Brandenburg. Due to his absence on stage with 24 players in the Stahlplatz Arena, the other big specialist Jean Paul de Bruijn is the top favorite. The 54-year-old Dutchman showed his huge form at the end of last year with his brilliant title in his own country with a national record average of 25.92. The other contenders for European gold this year are Eddy Leppens, Raul Cuenca and Willy Gérimont, among the outsiders are Xavier Gretillat, Raymund Swertz, Alain Remond, Marek Faus and Sam van Etten.
The 24 players at the European championship, which starts today (Tuesday), are divided into eight groups of three, the winners of which advance to the best eight for the quarterfinals. In the pre-rounds, the matches are to 100 points, in the final phase to 120. The Dutch and French are with six players in the field of 24. The semi-finals and final are tomorrow, Wednesday, at 12:30pm and 4:00pm
The winner will receive 2,000 euros, the number two 1,000, the numbers three and four 750 and 500.
The group layout:
Group A:
Jean Paul de Bruijn (Neth)
Markus Dömer (Ger)
Nikolaos Chatzipavlis (Gr)
Group B:
Xavier Gretillat (Swi)
Jean-Francois Florent (Fr)
Dave Christiani (Neth)
Group C:
Michel van Silfhout (Neth)
Alain Remond (Fr)
Adam Baca (Cz)
Group D:
Eddy Leppens (Bel)
Bernard Baudoin (Fr)
Sam van Etten (Neth)
Group E:
Sven Daske (Ger)
Raul Cuenca (Sp)
Johann Petit (Fr)
Group F:
Marek Faus (CzR)
Gregory Le Deventec (Fr)
Esteve Mata (Sp)
Group G:
Nikolaos Gerassimopoulos (Gr)
Willy Gérimont (Fr)
Peter Varga (Hun)
Group H:
Raymund Swertz (Neth)
Arnim Kahofer (Aus)
Carlos Marques (Lux).