GARLASCO - Europe's main billiard talent in three-cushion has crowned his supremacy with a victory in the first CEB Grand Prix. Young Turkish player Burat Haşhaş (15) was in the final match in Garlasco, Italy, the better of Seymen Özbas, who is two years older than Haşhaş and also lives in Istanbul. The final match ended in 35-23 for Burak Haşhaş in 29 innings. Also on the podium of the CEB promotion event for young players under 21 were Frenchman Nathan Duriez and German Ali Ibraimov.
Burak Haşhaş is a member of the Queen Club in the Asian part of Istanbul. The club is owned by Gülsen Degener, his coach and friend. Burak became last year's junior world champion with supremacy in the Netherlands at his youthful age. He was also the big favorite to win in the CEB event, where some of Europe's top players were missing. Haşhaş lived up to that expectation by winning all his matches. On the final day, he shone twice with a run of 10. The tournament was played with 17 participants from European billiard countries.
On Sunday morning, Haşhaş won in the semi-final against German Ibraimov 35-22 in 27 innings. In the other semi-final, Seymen Özbas was the better of Frenchman Nathan Duriez 35-20 in 33 innings.
Burak Haşhaş afterwards praised the event organized by the European Billiards Federation CEB for the juniors. ’’I am satisfied with my performance. This is an important victory for me, because the sponsor of this CEB Grand Prix is Longoni, which is also my personal sponsor. The organization was very good. I want to say thanks to everyone who participated in it, because it is very important for the development of youth players. For me, it was also a nice preparation for the European Under-25 Championship, which will be played next week in Antalya, Turkey.'' Burak is practicing six days in a week in Semih Sayginer's Max Club. ,,When Semih is not at the club, I practice with other players.''
At that European championship, the Turks, who are competing with Haşhaş, Özbas, Selahattin Ozkul and Oguz Ceylan, are among the favorites for the podium places. Haşhaş, who wants to become a professional billiard player, said: ’’I play 7-8 hours every day, often with Semih Sayginer, but most important in my billiards life is Gülsen Degener of Queen Billard Club. She is everything to me, my teacher, friend, mother and sister.’’ In his training as a billiard player, Haşhaş gets mental support. He attends a public school and reads a lot of billiards literature.''
Next week, at the European nnder-25 Championships, Burak Haşhaş sees his compatriot Seymen Özbas and Nikolaus Kogelbauer, Dimitrios Seleventas, Alessio D'Agata and Maxime Panaia as his biggest competitors.
The final ranking of the top four in the Longoni CEB Grand Prix:
1 Burak Haşhaş 14-1,314-10
2 Seymen Özbas 10-1,043-5
3 Nathan Duriez 8-0.915-5
4 Ali Ibramov 4-0.788-6.
The losing quarter-finalists were Nikolaus Kogelbauer, Christos Falangas, Yigit Baran Kara and Daniel Kristiansen.
The four final players Burak Hashas, Seymen Özbas, Nathan Duriez and Ali Ibraimov
The final players and Marco Zanetti (left) who was a guest of honor on the final day