The first day of the Dynamic Billard European Championships for Men, Women and Wheelchair athletes brought several surprises in all divisions. 102 men, 40 women and 14 participants in the wheelchair division have entered the discipline in order to see who will take the titles in the end.
In the winner’s qualification round of the men’s division 10-ball, Stephan Cohen (FRA) defeated Nick van den Berg (NED) surprisingly clear with 8:3. There is a story behind both of the two opponents. Cohen just today received his luggage after being here already for three days. He had to borrow cue stick and equipment and went through the straight pool with stuff from his fellow players. Probably he was very happy today to play in his own clothes with his own cue stick and equipment. On the other side, Nick van den Berg needs a good finish during these European Championships. Just like Niels Feijen who achieved his A-status yesterday by winning the title in straight pool, Nick van den Berg has the chance to get funding through his national olympic committee if he gets among the top eight players in a discipline. So the mindset of the two contestants were quite opposite before the match. Maybe that was the advantage that Cohen had over van den Berg.
Stephan Cohen
The Dutch never got into gear and had to watch Cohen snatching rack after rack from him. After six racks, the score was all square at 3:3. But then Cohen overtook on the left side and left van den Berg no other choice but watching him run away. In the end, 8:3 was the justified result for Cohen. The French advanced to the round of the last 64 players single elimination. Other remarkable results in the men’s division include Saki Kanatlar (TUR) pipping Denis Grabe (EST) to the post 8:7. In his loser’s qualification round match, Grabe wasted no time with Reda Belhaj (FRA), smashing him 8:1 out of the 10-ball and grabbing his seat among the final 64 tomorrow. Ivar Saris (NED) came up with the next upset, defeating Konstantin Stepanov (RUS) 8:4. Finally, Evgenii Buslaev (RUS) overpowered Mario He (AUT) 8:6.
One huge upset occurred in the women’s division today. Defending Champion Jasmin Ouschan (AUT) is already out of the 10-ball competition after having played only two matches. In her first match, she fell to the sharp blade of Ana Gradisnik (SLO) 5:6. She had to go to the loser’s side where she unfortunately met Kristina Tkach (RUS). Tkach, newly crowned straight pool Champion, lost to Tina Vogelmann (GER) earlier today and was also on the loser’s side, as unexpected as Ouschan. In their encounter, Tkach played rock solid and did not leave many chances for Ouschan. She proved to have nerves of steel and ousted Ouschan 6:2 from the 10-ball competition. Another remarkable result in the women’s division includes Claudia von Rohr (SUI) beating Amalia Matas (ESP) 6:3. Matas missed too many balls in deciding situations and von Rohr was cool enough to benefit from it so the result is perfectly in order with the way the match went.
In the wheelchair division, two long-time rivals met in the first round. Kurt Deklerck (BEL) took on Henrik Larsson (SWE) in winner’s round one and snatched the victory by a whisker with 5:4.
Tomorrow, the tournament will continue at 09:00 GMT with matches from the 10-ball individuals competition.
Every day, one match from the events will be shown LIVE on the Facebook page of the EPBF. All Facebook users may check out the high standard of quality which is provided for all the events and see what the Kozoom members receive all the time. You can see all the matches live via www.kozoom.com who stream the whole event on 24 tables on the internet LIVE. The FB live matches are announced on the EPBF Facebook page around noon every day. Results and schedule can be found at www.eurotouronline.com so why not come and check out all the LIVE action of the Dynamic Billard European Championships for Men, Women and Wheelchair Athletes starting Saturday 18th March at 09:00h GMT.
The event will be hosted by the European Governing Body for Pool, the European Pocket Billiard Federation (EPBF) and organized by International Billiard Promotion (IBP). For further information and reference please go to the federation website www.eurotouronline.com, visit us on Facebook or check out our youtube channel for regular news clips or contact our press office [email protected].
2017 歐錦標在首個比賽項目14-1結束之後，接著也展開了10球的賽程。共計有156名選手參加10球比賽，其中包含男子102名、女子40名及14名輪椅組選手。
在男子組一場勝部資格賽當中，由法國名將Stephan Cohen碰上荷蘭名將Nick van den。Cohen在抵達達葡萄牙後，他的行李並沒有一塊出現，因此在先前的14-1比賽中，他不得不先向他的隊友借球桿來比賽。三天過後，終於在此役賽前拿到了自己的行李。另一方面，Nick van den Berg 則面臨和他的隊友Niels Feijen相同的情況，van den Berg必須在歐錦賽當中取得好成績，最少在任一比賽項目中必須擠進前八強，否則他將失去荷蘭奧委會的資金支持，也使得兩位選手賽前的心態可說是大相逕庭。
而整場比賽中，Nick van den Berg似乎始終無法進入狀態，6局過後，比數緊咬在3-3平手的局面。至此之後，van den Berg僅能眼睜睜看著Cohen一局局的拿下，終場Cohen出乎意料地就以8-3擊敗Nick van den。這場比賽的勝利也讓Cohen率先進入到64強單敗階段。
Kristina Tkach
在其他比賽方面，愛沙尼亞好手Denis Grabe在勝部資格賽，不幸地以7:8敗給遭土耳其選手的Saki Kanatlar，Grabe隨後在敗部資格賽以8:1血洗了法國的Reda Belhaj，晉級到單敗淘汰賽。荷蘭小將Ivar Saris以8:4擊敗俄羅斯好手Konstantin Stepanov，另一位俄羅斯選手Evgenii Buslaev則是以8:6擊退奧地利的Mario He。
女子組方面，最出乎人意料之外的莫過於奧地利名將Jasmin Ouschan在10號球項目中出局。她在首場比賽在搶尾局中以5:6敗給斯洛維尼亞的Ana Gradisnik。下一場在敗部的比賽當中，不幸地又遇上了宿敵Kristina Tkach。而剛拿下14-1冠軍的Tkach，則在第一場比賽 4:6不敵德國的Tina Vogelmann。因此兩人再度狹路相逢，Tkach整場比賽發揮地相當理想，並沒有留下太多機會給Ouschan，最終就以6:2淘汰對手。其他場次方面，瑞士的Claudia von Rohr穩定的發揮，再加上對手西班牙的Amalia Matas出現過多失誤的情況下，也讓von Rohr以6-3擊敗對手，穩穩拿下勝利。
在輪椅組方面，比利時的Kurt Deklerck與芬蘭好手Henrik Larsson在第一輪就碰上。最終Deklerck以5:4驚險擊敗對手取得勝利。
在賽事直播視頻方面，一如既往地將由 Kozoom 提供付費制的視頻直播服務。而 EPBF 每日將會提供一場比賽在其EPBF Facebook上直播，讓所有Facebook用戶及球迷們，除能觀看比賽之外，也能藉此查看到Kozoom長期以來提供給付費會員的高畫質視頻。
登入Kozoom網站 (https://www.kozoom.com/en/pool-billiard/) 先加入會員後，即可線上購買會員通行證 (Premium Pass) 成為Premium會員。Premium會員啟用後，即可觀看所有歐洲撞球協會舉辦的賽事，如歐錦賽、歐巡賽。賽事結束後，還可觀看影片庫中過往所有比賽視頻。
Alison