BRANDENBURG - The Belgian Frédéric Caudron and the Italian Marco Zanetti play the final at the European championship three-cushion at 18.00 this Sunday evening. The two former teammates in the Golden Agipi team won in the semi-finals respectively against Dick Jaspers and David Martinez. Frédéric Caudron conquered the European title twice before in his career, Marco Zanetti was one time the best in Europe.
The Belgian all round player launched his match against Jaspers with a 24-8 lead, but two innings later, Jaspers levelled the score with five and eleven in the 12th and 13th inning (24-24). In the final phase, Caudron was the best, although Jaspers still got a chance at 33-30. Two innings later, with six and one, Caudron finished it off: 40-30 in 19 innings.
Marco Zanetti attacked from the start of his match against David Martinez with 7 and 9, making a gap to 23-9 and later 29-11. The Spaniard missed some luck in his game. Zanetti: ,,At the end, when I was leading comfortable, I missed out on some difficult positions, but the gap was big enough for a riant victory." The final score: 40-30 in 19.
For Caudron, it was the third time in a row that he bested Jaspers after the World Cup final in Vietnam (40-20 in 17) and the World Cup final in Bursa (40-14 in 7).
Marco Zanetti already looked forward to the final and remembered to the historic semi-final match at the EC four years ago. Caudron equalled in this match against Zanetti the world record high run (28), but despite, the Italian took the match. Then, he conquered European gold in the final against Christian Rudolph.
Frédéric Caudron to the final match after win over Dick Jaspers
Marco Zanetti and David Martinez shake hands after the match
Dick Jaspers lost to Caudron, but saved his nr. 1 position on the ranking