DESIO - Austrian Nikolaus Kogelbauer and Dane Lukas Mortensen are the main contenders for the top sixteen at the European three cushion Championships under 21. Four other favorites remained unbeaten in the preliminaries: three Turks, Denizcan Akkoca, Dogucan Corbaci and Hakan Gorguc, and the Spaniard Ivan Mayor, since two months the reigning European champion under 25. Sixteen-year-old Turk Burak Hashas is the undisputed contender for the European three-cushion title under 17: Hashas won his preliminaries with six match points and 1,923 on average at the small table.
The under-21 tournament has finished its preliminaries and will start with the eighth finals tomorrow, Saturday. The matches in that knock-out:
Nikolaus Kogelbauer-Milan Ettel
Dimitrios Seleventas-Ali Ibraimov
Ivan Mayor-Nick Rosier
Dogukan Corbaci-Daniel Sainz-Pardo
Denizcan Akkoca-Nathan Duriez
Hakan Gorguc-Daniel Kristiansen
Amir Ibraimov-Sergio Martinez
Lukas Mortensen-Christos Falangas
Nikolaus Kogelbauer and Lukas Mortensen finished in the groups with three players with 1,250 on average, Akkoca was third with 4 points and 1,086, Mayor fourth with 4 points and 0,925 and Corbaci fifth with 4 points and 0,925. Ali Ibraimov, playing for Germany, and Nikolaus Kogelbauer played the best games with 25 in 17 innings, Lukas Mortensen was not far away with 25 in 18.
Dutchmen Joris van 't Zelfden (2 played, 2 lost, 0.509, run 4) and Xavier Siahaya (2 played, 2 lost, 0.452, run 3) were eliminated as numbers 17 and 18 in a field of 20 players. Belgian Nick Rosier, who lost and drew (0.754 average) in a group with only Amir Ibraimov, managed to qualify for the last sixteen.
Sixteen-year-old Turk Burak Hashas makes a shot at European gold in the three-cushion under 17. With six match points, 1,923 on average and a highest run of 11, he finished comfortably on top after the preliminaries. He closed the pre-rounds ahead of another Turk, Seymen Ozbas (7-1,388-8), Frenchman Tangui Duriez (6-1,229-7) and Spaniards Marcos Morales (4-1,263-7) and Toni Garcia (4-0,802-4).
For the Belgians, Luca Philipoom with 4 match points out of four matches just qualified as eighth player for the quarter-finals with 4 points, 0,568 and a highest run of 3. That means he will face top-favorite Burak Hashas tomorrow, Saturday, at 9.00 am. The only Dutchman, ten-year-old Joeri Wilkowski, was eliminated as 11th in the field of 13 players with 1 win and 3 losses and a total of 2 match points, 0,447, highest run 5.
The matches for the quarter-finals:
Hashas-Philipoom
Morales-Garcia
Duriez-Zotov
Ozbas-Ide.
Dutchman Nick Dudink has recovered from a weak start and has moved up to second place in the under-21 ranking, in which six players play against each other. After losing to the current leader, Frenchman Nathan Legendre, 177-49 in the maximum 20 innings, Dudink won his match against German Dario Meysing 250-90 in 19 and later against Joshu Ty from France 250-151 in 17. Belgian Samuel Vanderveken lost his two matches and is as good as eliminated for the podium places.
Dudink still plays Frenchman Picard and Belgian Vanderveken. Legendre leads the ranking with 6 match points, 9,28 and highest run of 69. Dudink is the number two with 4 points, 9,80 and a run of 61.
In the 5 pins, Italian Emanuel Cucchiara is the leader with 4 match points and 2.28 on average ahead of two other Italians, Felice Izzo and Luigi Aniello de Girolamo del Mauro. These three will decide who will take European gold.
Dutchman Marius Kroonen is last and 11th in the standings with no points and a set average of -4.
Danish player Lukas Mortensen, unbeaten in pre-rounds under 21