FOLLOWING AN ARDUOUS day’s play at the EPBF PREDATOR European Pool Championships, all three categories – men, women and wheelchair users – are down to the final four players in the 10-ball division. With all the action taking place at the spacious Kalevi Hall in Tallinn, there was plenty of exciting drama across the 28 tables in operation.
The final finishing quarter-final was a last-gasp thriller as Konrad Juszczyszyn (POL) defeated Emile-Andre Gangflot (NOR) by the single rack, after the young Norwegian misplaced a safety at a critical moment. It had been very close throughout and could have gone either way.
Said Juszczyszyn, “I’m very happy because that was a very tough match and he was breaking like a cyborg and that was very tough. I was down at the beginning; I made two mistakes in the first and second rack but he played like a machine so that was tough to come back into the game but I did it.
“I’ve won gold and silver (in Veldhoven, 2018) and also bronze in Portugal but it was six years ago. I’ve felt very confident the whole tournament from the beginning in straight pool, I played very good and I want to keep my game tomorrow.”
He will be facing Spain’s Juan Carlos Exposito tomorrow while the other semi-final will be between Kristian Mrva (Slovakia) and Stefan Kasper of Germany.
Austria’s Jasmin Ouschan, making a welcome return to the Predator European Championships after a five-year absence, is assured of a medal following a string of good performances. She defeated Oliwia Zalewska 6-2 in the last eight and can look forward to playing Alara Ghaffari of Turkish North Cyprus in the semi-finals.
Commented Ouschan, “When you secure your spot in the semi-finals, you can’t be too mad at yourself even though, I have to say, I’m not all satisfied with my game yet. Although this one was one of my best ones so far, especially with the kicking and the safety, I think I can do even better so for tomorrow I hope I can play better than today and get closer to my game step by step.
It is Ouschan’s first European Championship since 2019, when she took home a gold, silver and bronze; “Standing here playing again, against these women after a few years, it’s like no time has passed and I’m glad to be back and glad that we’re having a great European Championships in Estonia. I’ve never been to Estonia and I always love to come to countries I’ve never been to. So far, I’ve felt very comfortable and I’m looking forward to a great tournament.
“With all my European Championships, each tournament is a new one and you have to start from the beginning. I’ve played European Championship for so long and the really good thing about the EC is that you have so many disciplines to focus on and you have to switch very quickly. In the past couple of years, I’ve only really had one discipline to play so when I was at home preparing, I thought, oh, 8-ball… I haven’t played 8-ball in years! So, it is more challenging to switch between the disciplines, and I have to find my groove,” she concluded.
The other semi final features Ina Kaplan (Germany) against Portugal’s Sara Rocha, who are assured of at least bronze medals.
The wheelchair division will be without record-medallist Jouni Tahti, who fell by the wayside but the category’s other multiple-medal winner, Sweden’s Henrik Larsson will be going for gold medal number 16 after battling through the one-loss side. He plays Matej Brajkovic (Slovenia). The other semi-final will be contested by Kim-Ronny Nygard (Norway) and David Slacek, also of Slovenia.
The semi-finals get underway at 16.00 tomorrow (Wednesday) with the finals following at 18.30. During the day, the 8-ball discipline commences with the addition of the Under 23 category, making four in total.
This year sees a new streaming platform for the Predator European Championship events. Tables 1 and 2 will be streamed throughout on YouTube, via the Pro Billiard TV channel – https://www.youtube.com/@ProBilliardTV
In addition, competing players are permitted to stream their own matches on outside tables to their public social media accounts.
For all results, live scoring and draw, visit www.epbf.com/tournaments/european-championships/