ZOERSEL - Sixteen of Europe's best billiard talents have been invited to a tournament in Belgium this week. The summer gala is an initiative of the Verhoeven Youth Circuit and will be played from Friday 23 to Sunday 25 August. The venue is tDe Ploeg billiard centre in Zoersel, and the most celebrated players are Denizcan Akkoca from Turkey, Dimitrios Seleventas from Greece and Amir Ibraimov from Germany. The players are delighted with the invitation as they can gain experience at an important stage of development and are being spoiled by the Belgian organization.
‘’We offer them a wonderful opportunity to play with guys of the same level in an ideal environment,‘’ assures Jef Philipoom, who together with his wife Bianca and Ludo Laurijsen do a lot of work behind the scenes and promote the tournament. The appeal for the juniors is that the playing schedule reaches the finals in three days and players, who only have to pay for the trip and are picked up from the airport, can live like budding pros.‘’
The 16 players are divided into two groups of eight that all meet to 25 points. The cross-finals and finals will go to 35 points. All players will play at least eight matches. ’’We have tried to invite two players from the major billiard countries. There will be trophies for the winners, goodie bags for all players afterwards with some 300, 400 euros worth of billiard materials such as balls tips, gloves, chalk and other stuff. Everything is taken care of during those days so that the players don't lack anything.‘’
The main sponsors are Verhoeven billiard factory, Longoni, EG ELEC, Aramith and Man op Maat.
The 16 players:
Dimitrios Seleventas, Greece
Nathan Duriez, France
Joris van ‘t Zelfden, Netherlands
Denizcan Akkoca, Turkey
Nick Rosier, Belgium
Samuel Vanderveeken, Belgium
Daniel Sainz Pardo, Spain
Tangui Duriez, France
Christos Falengas, Greece
Marcos Morales, Spain
Luca Philipoom, Netherlands
Tim van Hoeck, Belgium
Amir Ibraimov, Germany
Goncalo Santos, Portugal
Daniel Kristiansen, Denmark
Ali Ibraimov, Germany
The first matches are Friday at 11am. Games will be played on four match tables.
