MELK - The French female top player Magali Declunder, multiple champion in the classic games, seems to be on her way again to the European title in free game. Two rivals can still threaten the 54-year-old lady. Belgian Karolien Matthys and German Susanne Stengel-Ponsing are two match points down to the unbeaten leader, but are far behind in terms of average. The championship is played in Melk, Austria, with eight players meeting each other in a full competition (Round robin).
Magali Declunder won her 5 games so far with 68,18 on overall average, played on the small match table, with two games of 150 points in 1 inning, twice in 2 innings and once in 5 innings.
Karolien Matthys only lost to Susanne Stengel-Ponsing (150-48 in 12), the German in her turn only lost to Magali Declunder in one inning (150-4) in the last game of the first match day. Matthys has 8 match points out of 5 and 13,78 average (best run 126), Stengel-Ponsing has 8 match points and 13,13 (run 89).
Behind the three leaders are Monique van Exter from the Netherlands and Heike Hingerl from Austria with 6 points. The Dutch lady has a 16,00 average (run 103), the Austrian 6,10 (run 63). Christel Willemse (Netherlands) is sixth in the ranking with 4 points and 9,58. Two Austrian players, Silvia Simulak and Petra Scholze, close the ranking without match points.
The eight players start this Sunday morning as of 10.00 for the final sessions, which can be followed on Youtube via Kozoom. Magali Declunder, who has twelve European titles to her name in free game, plays her last match against Karolien Matthys at 14.00, Susanne Stengel-Ponsing meets in the same round Monique van Exter, who is three times European champion (1999, 2007, 2013).