ANTALYA - The eight teams playing on the final day, tomorrow, Sunday, at the European three cushion Championship for national teams are led by Turkey, ahead of the Netherlands and France in the rankings after the preliminary rounds. The Italian team of Marco Zanetti, who won the European title individually on Saturday, is eliminated, the same as the Belgians with Eddy Merckx and Jef Philipoom and the Danes with Dion Nelin and Jacob Haack Sörensen. Turks Semih Sayginer and Tayfun Tasdemir, who played a double against Netherlands 2, were the best in average with 2.025. Dick Jaspers shone for the Netherlands with a 20 run in his match against Jérôme Barbeillon.
The Turkish top team plays against Turkey 2 (Sayginer-Karakurt), the Netherlands against Germany (Jaspers-Horn), France against Greece (Bury-Polychronopoulos) and Spain against Sweden (Sánchez-Blomdahl) in the first knock-outs tomorrow (9.00 Turkey, 8.00 Western Europe).
The decisive match between France and Italy in Group E was disturbed by a 15-minute discussion in the match between Jérémy Bury and Marco Zanetti, two former team mates in Agipi's famous European team. The score was 10-10 when Bury was given a carom of which Zanetti said there were only two cushions.
Frenchman Bury after few minutes eventually wanted to sit down, but when Zanetti went to the table to shoot, he was prevented by Dutch umpire René Peters. The discussion continued, until CEB director Jean Pierre Guiraud was called to the table. The Frenchman officially agreed with the umpire. That allowed Bury, very much against Zanetti's wishes, to continue the match. Bury won the match 40-35 in 27, which meant for France that the team advanced to the next round and Italy (Zanetti/Sciacca) was eliminated.
The two teams that gathered the maximum 8 match points were Turkey 1 (Sayginer and Tasdemir) and the Netherlands 1 (Dick Jaspers and Jean Paul de Bruijn). For the French, Michael Devogelaere played a draw against Emilio Sciacca. Spain, Sweden and Turkey 2 lost one match each. Ruben Legazpi (in his first game a run of 17) was beaten by Marcel Back of Germany 2. Torbjörn Blomdahl lost for Sweden to Arnim Kahofer 40-38 in 24, but Michael Nilsson beat Nikolaus Kogelbauer 40-27 in 21. And finally, Turkey 2 had to give up one match when Eddy Merckx won against Berkay Karakurt (40-26 in 20). Because Tolgahan Kiraz defeated Jef Philipoom, Turkey 2 advanced to the last eight.
The best matches were played by Nikos Polychronopoulos against Gerhard Kostistansky (40-29 in 13), Dion Nelin against Arnim Kahofer (40-33 in 14) and Ruben Legazpi against Rui Costa (40-34 in 14).
Marco Zanetti is out with Italy after his loss to Jérémy Bury
Martin Horn is facing Dick Jaspers in Holland-Germany
Dick Jaspers, 20 run against France, tomorrow Holland-Germany
Semih Sayginer, the better of second Dutch team with Turkey
Dani Sánchez with Spain against Sweden (Sánchez-Blomdahl)
The quarter-finals, Sunday morning 9am:
Turkey 1-Turkey 2
Semih Sayginer-Berkay Karakurt
Tayfun Tasdemir-Tolgahan Kiraz
Spain-Sweden
Dani Sánchez-Torbjörn Blomdahl
Ruben Legazpi-Michael Nilsson
France-Greece
Jérémy Bury-Nikos Polychronopoulos
Mikael Devogelaere-Kostas Kokkoros
Netherlands-Germany
Dick Jaspers-Martin Horn
Jean Paul de Bruijn-Dustin Jäschke
The best eight teams in the preliminary selection:
1 Turkey 1 4-8-2.025-14
2 Netherlands 1 4-8-1,523-20
3 France 1 4-7-1,280-9
4 Spain 1 3-6-1,755-17
5 Sweden 1 3-6-1,680-11
6 Turkey 2 3-6-1,640-10
7 Greece 1 3-6-1,560-8
8 Germany 1-2-4-1,108-8