BRANDENBURG AN DER HAVEL - The national teams in three cushion have started the day with the fight for the European title with Netherlands (Dick Jaspers and Raimond Burgman) as the defending champion. The teams are divided into eight groups of three. The winners of the groups advance to the quarterfinals.
Biggest surprise in the first sessions came from the group with Sweden, Spain B and Germany A. The Swedish multiple team world champion in the line-up with Torbjörn Blomdahl and Michael Nilsson lost its both matches against Spain B: 2-0.
Javier Palazón defeated the new European champion individually, Torbjörn Blomdahl, 30-18 in sixteen innings and Sergio Jimenez completed the success of the Spanish team against Nilsson 30-27 in 17.
The Belgian B-team with Frederic Caudron and Roland Forthomme have had a strong start against the Czechs Bohac and Novac. Caudron won in eighteen, Forthomme in twenty.
For the European title at the small table, 32 players battle it out for the final rounds. They play in the first day's sessions for sixteen spots in the eighth finals. The best group winner in the preliminaries was Peter De Backer with 2.343 average, but the Belgian was already knocked-out in the first session by his compatriot Kenny Miatton, who played a tremendous match: 40-31 in 10 innings. The other high ranked players after the qualifications were Omer Karakurt with 2.173, Birol Uymaz 2.083 and Ivo Gazdos 1.829.
Berry Dallinga put in another surprise big surprise in the first round against Turk Can Capak, who was not so long ago the winner of a huge tournament with 800 players in his own country. He beat Lütfi Cenet in the final match. Dallinga, who struggles with an eye injury and had a bad season, won his group with 1.315 average, but was truly on the top of his form against Capak. Dallinga was 18-9 down after the start, but then went full speed, attacked with a decisive run of 9 and won 40-33 in 25.
Kenny Miatton played a tremendous match and beat Peter De Backer 40-31 in 10 innings.
The reigning champion Herbert Szivacz was eliminated by German Dirk Harwardt 40-18 in 20.
The women in free game start off at 17.00 in their title race. The French Magalie Declunder is the big favorite for the title. Six ladies are playing for four places in the semi-finals, which are played on Friday.
The two groups:
Group A:
Mirjam Plum-Emmens, Heike Hingerl, Magali Declunder.
Group B:
Daisy Werdekker, Veronique Alles, Susanne Stengel-Ponsing.
The groups for the nation teams:
Group A: B Greece, Hungary, Belgium A
Group B: Luxembourg, Norway, Turkey A
Group C: B Belgium, Czech Republic, Spain A
Group D: Turkey B, Italy, Denmark
Group E: Spain B, Sweden, Germany A
Group F: Netherlands A, Switzerland, Germany B
Group G: Portugal, France B. Austria
Group H: Greece A, Netherlands B, France A.
Lütfi Cenet started his birthday with a victory