DESIO - Two young Turkish billiard players, one of whom is regarded as one of the world's biggest talents, have dominated the European junior billiards championships. Denizcan Akkoca from Ankara was the new champion in the discipline up to 22 years, where he beat Austrian Nikolaus Kogelbauer in the final match (35-32 in 35 innings). Sixteen-year-young Burak Haşhas from Beylikdüzü, Istanbul, was the best in the under-17 class by a comfortable margin, beating Frenchman Tangui Duriez in the final 30-5 in 10 innings (3,000 on average).
Denizcan Akkoca was on the podium with Nikolaus Kogelbauer, Ivan Mayor (the European champion under 25) and Greek Christos Falangas. The golden Akkoca and Nikolaus Kogelbauer played an exciting final, which was decided in the last part. The Austrian was the big contender after he had beaten Ivan Mayor in the semi-final 35-25 in 21.
Young Turk Burak Haşhas was the most impressive player of all at the European Championships. Although he played on the small table in the under-17 category, his average and high runs far surpassed the rest of the participants.
Burak Haşhas (born 8 April 2006) comes from Beylikdüzu, Istanbul, was already three times crowned as the Turkish junior champion and plays in the Beylikdüzü club of Gülsen Degener, the well known Turkish women's player, who is his mentor in his young career. According to many experts, the young Turkish player has the talent of the Korean Myung-Woo Cho, the triple world junior champion.
On the European stage in Desio Burak Haşhas shone with wins over Frenchman Watbled (25-3 in 15), Toni Garcia from Spain (his best match 25-7 in 8, 3,125 on average), against two years younger Belgian Luca Philipoom in the quarter-finals (30-8 in 15), Toni Garcia in the semi-finals (30-24 in 21) and finally in the final against Tangui Duriez (30-5 in 10).
Denizcan Akkoca, the under 22 champion, is 17, was born in Sinop and lives in Ankara, where he is studying at university. His teacher was Nurettin Karakurt, he practices with Omer and Berkay Karakurt. Akkoca has been playing billiards since the age of 7, Burak Haşhas started his career at the age of 10. The other Turkish player on the under 21 stage was Seymen Ozbas, who lost to Tangui Duriez in the semi-finals 30-28 in 20.
Frenchman Nathan Legendre became the undefeated champion in free game of the under 21s. The decision in the tournament, which was played with six players in a full competition, fell in the first games. The Frenchman faced Nick Dudink from the Netherlands and won after a moderate match 177-49 in the maximum of 20 innings. Nick Dudink turned out to be the best player of the tournament after his poor bad start. The Dutchman won all his matches, including the last one against Samuel Vanderveken, 250-14 in 3 innings, the best match of the entire tournament.
Frenchman Legendre also won all his matches and became champion with the maximum match points. Dudink had the best average with 15,89 (Legendre 10,11) and the highest run (218, Legendre 108). Third and fourth were the French players Picard and Ty.
The Italians were in positions 1, 2 and 3 in 5-pins. Emanuel Cucchiara was the winner with 10 match points ahead of Felice Izzo with 10 points as well.
At the European Championships biathlon, where one player is playing three cushion and the other 5-pins, Denmark 1 became champion with Lukas Mortensen and Jonas Söndergard. The new European champion in this discipline defeated Italy 2 in the final. The biggest surprise came from the Netherlands team, that with Joris van 't Zelfden and Marius Kroonen reached a wonderful third place.
The final rankings of the European Championships, organized by the European federation CEB and the Italian billiard federation:
European Championship under 21 years, three cushion:
1 Denizcan Akkoca (Turkey) 12-1.032-9
2 Nikolaus Kogelbauer (Austria) 10-1.198-12
3 Iván Mayor (Spain) 8-1.028-9
4 Christos Falangas (Greece) 4-0.8178-7
5 Dimitrios Seleventas (Greece) 4-1. 120-8
6 Daniel Kristiansen (Denmark) 4-0.863-7
7 Daniel Sainz-Pardo (Spain) 4-0.829-6
8 Amir Ibraimov (Germany) 5-0.776-9
9 Sergio Martinez (Spain) 2-0.963-7
10 Nathan Duriez (France) 2-0.785-8
The under 22 winner Denizcan Akkoca
European Championship under 17 three cushion:
1 Burak Haşhas (Turkey) 12-1.941-11
2 Tangui Duriez (France() 10-1.147-7
3 Seymen Ozbas (Turkey) 9-1.490-9
4 Toni Garcia (Spain) 6-1. 018-7
5 Marcos Morales (Spain) 4-1.273-7
6 Arturo Daniel Zotov (Spain) 7-0.759-7
7 Luca Philipoom (Belgium) 4-0.568-3
8 Jakob Ide (Germany) 2-0.682-3
Free game under 22:
1 Nathan Legendre (France) 10-10.11-108
2 Nick Dudink (Netherlands) 8-15.89-218
3 Arthur Picard (France) 6-6.64-60
4 Joshua Ty (France) 3-9.31-81
5 Samuel Vanderveken (Belgium) 3-7.43-72.
The winners podium in the free game under 21 with Nathan Legendre, Nick Dudink and the French Picard and Ty
5 pins under 22:
1 Emmanuel Cucchiara (Italy), 720 points, 1.87 on average
2 Felice Izzo (Italy) 763, 1.66
3 Luigi Aniello De Girolamo del Mauro (Italy) 447, 1.19
4 Felix Schrobback (Germany) 585, 1.11
Biathlon nation teams (match points, points, average): 1 Denmark 1: 10, 1000, 1.00 2 Italy 2: 6, 950, 0.95 3 France 1: 8, 986, 0.98
The Danish winners in the nation championship biathlon