PLAY AT THE PREDATOR European Pool Championships continued at the Kalevi Hall in Tallinn with multiple rounds of 8-ball as well as matches in the team events. The 8-ball features tournaments in the men, women, wheelchair users and under 23 categories, while there are two team competitions – men and women.
Making a welcome return to the European Championship after a lengthy absence is Austria’s Albin Ouschan who coasted through two rounds of 8-ball competition to take his place in tomorrow’s last 64.
Commented Ouschan, “Mixed feelings so far as it’s 8-ball, not my favourite discipline so it’s getting a feeling for the table for the upcoming events. I’m really looking forward to the team event and obviously 9-ball, then followed by the Euro Tour which is also 8-ball so it’s good practice. I play 8-ball like twice a year but it looked alright to me, maybe one or two wrong decisions, but overall, I’m happy.
“8-ball kind of died over the past years, obviously Predator brought it back which is nice for the game and it’s a nice move from them so I have to get back to playing 8-ball a little bit more. At the World 8-Ball I was very, very disappointed when I lost in the last 16. You need to see the patterns and everything so I’ve got to put some more time in it into the future but I’m looking forward.
Looking ahead to the team event where Ouschan links up with Mario He and Max Lechner, he said, “I think it can’t get much better than that. We’re one of the top favourites but in teams, strange things have happened in the past years. We won it once and been to the final a second time when we lost to Spain. There’s some other great teams and in the end its an individual game. I’m looking forward to it and it’s going to be a fun time,” he added.
Sara Rocha (Portugal) achieved her best-ever European Championship finish on Wednesday night as she finished runner-up in the 10-ball division and she survived a mixed day in the 8-ball to make it through to the last 32.
She won her opening match 6-2 against local Anastasia Losseva but was beaten 6-3 by Jasmin Ouschan in the winner’s qualification round. However, she bounced back to defeat Ivana Sabaric (Serbia) to progress.
“For me the final was a very special moment so I didn’t need recovery. I just felt my body a little tired, mentally also. It was a tough day, also because of the semi-final. Ina (Kaplan) is a tough player she was fighting very hard, so it was very difficult. I’m OK today, I just accept what I was feeling and I’m ready for 8-ball.
“I’d only had individual bronze medals until now; I have two gold medals for teams so it was a special achievement and moment. It’s not easy as it’s a lot of competition and it’s very difficult to deal with sometimes when you lose and have to be ready for the next discipline but I’ve played European Championships since 2010 so I’m used to it . I’m also physically prepared for it as I do a lot of Pilates so I’m prepared for all events but it’s not easy and you have to be ready to play five tournaments in 12 days.”
In the men’s team event, Poland got off to winning start as they hunt down a three-peat, having won this title in 2023 and 2024. They won the requisite two matches to push Finland aside and the trio of Mieszko Fortunski, Wojciech Szewczyk and Konrad Juszczyszyn can take their place in the round of 16 on Saturday.
Juszczyszyn, who dominated his 10-ball match against Petri Makkonen after taking gold in the same discipline last night, said “I think I played even better there than last night. Petri is always dangerous and the whole Team Finland is dangerous so it was a tough match and we’re happy that we’re in the next round.”
Miesko said, “That was nice. It’s a good start for us as that was a tough match so we’re happy we played good.”
Finally, Szewczyk added, “I agree that Finland was a tough opponent and sometimes first matches in tournaments can be a little bit shaky but I think we showed our strengths. We all played good and we’re very focused so I hope we can carry on in the next round.
“It’s some extra motivation as from what I know in history, no-one has ever defended twice so that’s our goal here. I’m sure we’re capable but I know there are many great teams and we’re taking it match by match but the final goal is the gold’” he added.
Play restarts on Friday morning at 9.00 as the Men’s, Women’s and Under 23’s play down to the quarter-final stage and the wheelchair users down to the final six. Play also resumes in both team events.
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/