BRANDENBURG - The only title that was missing on the honor roll of Marco Zanetti was the gold medal in the European championship. The 51-year-old Italian, who twice won the world title and is in the form of his life for some weeks, captured this title today (Sunday 14 April) after an impressive range of matches.
With the triumph march that brought him along Radek Novak (17 innings), Martin Horn (16), Dick Jaspers (17), Frédéric Caudron (12) and in the final Christian Rudolph (40-10 in 18) he not only grabbed the title, Zanetti also took a new European record average: 2.500.
The new European champion also earned a ticket for the World Games in Colombia (from 26 to 30 July this year), according to what was announced in Brandenburg. Zanetti wil go to the Games with Christian Rudolph (silver medal), Glenn Hofman (bronze), Eddy Merckx (the world champion), Dick Jaspers (title holder in the World Games) and Roland Forthomme. The Belgian champion replaces Frédéric Caudron, who has opted to not participate.
The European championship in the Stahlpalast in Brandenburg did not get the sparkling showdown that the tournament deserved. Marco Zanetti was much too strong for Christian Rudolph, who had played a great tournament, but was unable to hurt his opponent in the final.
The tournament will go down in history with the European record of Zanetti, Frédéric Caudron’s run of 28, an equaling of the world record and was the completion of a rare hat-trick of Marco Zanetti. He starred with his third consecutive victory after Lausanne and Agipi.
He was unanimously praisded by other top players for his world class performance, fighting spirit and mental toughness and his unique playing style.
Marco Zanetti was the unparalleled showman again in this tournament with a sense for theater. That is unique in the world where peace and order prevails and emotions are rarely displayed. The Italian, together with Frédéric Caudron top player in the almost unbeatable Agipi team, is proud of his temperament, like footballers, cyclists and other athletes from his country like to show.
At the European championship Zanetti was the best again from all top guns, like in Lausanne, where he finished ahead of Caudron (in the finals), Blomdahl and Jaspers. In the Agipi Masters he did it again in a match with Caudron and now he defeated his teammate in the European titlerun in the semifinals.
The Belgian achieved a world record run (28), nevertheless Zanetti made a spectacular come back and qualified with his win for the final.
,,That effort took a lot of energy’’, he said after the final match in an interview. ,,I'm tired now, I need rest, but I can leave here with a wonderful feeling. I won already all titles, but not the European title. This feels like the ultimate victory in my career.’’
The final result reflects Zanetti’s supremacy. The championship was in fact not the tournament of the high averages. Zanetti was the only one who played over two. Christian Rudolph was the second with 1.465, Frédéric Caudron third with 1.869 and Glenn Hofman with 1.059.
The final ranking (top fifteen, average, high runs):
1 Marco Zanetti (Italy) 2500, 14
2 Christian Rudolph (Germany) 1465, 9
3 Frédéric Caudron (Belgium) 1869, 28
4 Glenn Hofman (Netherlands) 1059, 5
5 Dick Jaspers (Netherlands) 1793, 11
6 Murat Naci Coklu (Turkey) 1579, 12
7 Filippos Kasidokostas (Greece) 1519, 8
8 Roland Forthomme (Belgium) 1492, 8
9 Martin Horn (Germany) 1527, 8
10 Jérôme Barbeillon (France) 1519, 8
11 Dani Sánchez (Spain) 1461, 7
12 Jérémy Bury (France) 1381, 8
13 Lütfi Cenet (Turkey) 1318, 14
14 Sameh Sidhom (Egypt) 1142, 9
15 Jean Paul de Bruijn (Netherlands) 1030, 4.