MONTBRISON - After an exciting final in Montbrison on Saturday, Frenchman Willy Gérimont became the 71/2 European champion. He was the better of Belgian Patrick Niessen after a three-hour match and can call himself the very best in this discipline of the balk-line, in which no world championships are played anymore. Willy Gérimont is the third Frenchman to win this European title after 2 successes of Jean Marty and 3 victories of Francis Connesson, the last in 1979!
The final against the multiple Belgian and European champion was very emotional and highlighted the fighting spirit of the Frenchman. Patrick Niessen started with a run of 115. Willy Gérimont came back little by little with short runs, in which he did not really manage to find his rhythm. In the fourth inning, the score was 148-99 in Niessen's favor. The Belgian was getting nervous, let the position slip out of his hands and eventually missed. The Frenchman took advantage of this to come back to 137-163 before Niessen scored 200 points in the sixth inning by a run of 37. Gerimont had to score 63 points in the equalizer to tie the score and the start of the run was chaotic. Nevertheless, all points were scored with some extremely precarious situations. After some 40 points Gerimont finally managed to get the positon under control and finally leveled the score under the cheers of the crowd.
In the first extension, Niessen made the 20 points, Gerimont did the same and the two players had to repeat the shoot-out until there was a winner. In the second attempt, the Belgian scored 3 points and then missed a two-cushion. The tension was extreme. Gérimont had to score 4 points to become European Champion.
The first point was very well played and left a dominant position, the second was also well played in terms of placement, the third was a perfectly executed piqué and the title point that presented itself was a simple shot. The Frenchman walked around the table, took a deep breath and made the last championship point. The Frenchman showed his joy, the crowd applauding him as the true European champion.
Earlier in the semi-final, Willy Gérimont had played his best match beating Olivier Careaux 200-60 in 4 innings with a run of 160 in the 2nd, the best run of the championship. Before that, Gérimont won his quarter-final against Arnim Kahofer 200-119 in 11, in the qualification phase he beat Benoit Deziles-Legros and Sven Daske.
The runner-up is Patrick Niessen, who won against Johann Petit and Raymund Swertz in the qualification, then against Marek Faus in the quarter-final (200-123 in 9) and against Gert-Jan Veldhuizen in the semi-final 200-162 in 4 (series 137).
The podium was completed by Dutchman Gert-Jan Veldhuizen (average 31.52) and Olivier Careaux (16.96). The best overall average was for the Spaniard Raul Cuenca with 59.60!
Two happy final players, Willy Gérimont and Patrick Niessen
Patrick Niessen with Gert-Jan Veldhuizen, who played an excellent championship as well