IT WAS WALL-TO-WALL 8-ball today at the PREDATOR EUROPEAN Youth Pool Championships as all three categories played down to the closing stages to resume on Sunday afternoon. The Boys Under 17s and 19s have reduced down to the final eight players, while the girls have arrived at the final six.
Guaranteed a medal in the Girls is Rachelle Enfroy of France, who is playing in her first ever European Championship event. She entered her match against Linnea Hjalmarstrom as a definite underdog but put in a great performance to win 5-2, make her way into tomorrow’s last four and reverse her 5-1 defeat to Hjalmarstrom in the 10-ball.
Enfroy comes from a pool playing family with mother Rose Deu Va a regular competitor on the Predator Euro Tour, and father Pascal an occasional contestant too. Enfroy’s opponent is not yet determined and will come from one of the final two loser’s qualification matches on Sunday afternoon.
She said, “I played very good and I’m so proud of myself and happy because I’ve got a medal. I didn’t play good first time against Linnea because I felt too much pressure against her because she’s the best. I started playing at three or four, pool is my passion and I want to be a professional.”
Enfroy’s opening victory in the 8-ball came at the expense of Julia Babica but the Polish girl gamely battled back through the one loss side, winning three consecutive medals to put her one win away from a podium finish. Like Enfroy, Julia also comes from a pool-playing background – her father is European stalwart Radoslaw Babica.
She said, “It was a really tough day because of three matches and I won one hill-hill and another was close to hill-hill. The last one was a tough match because I was tired and everything as I played from 4pm till now. It was really tough on the mental side but I’m really proud of myself that I did it. I was five years-old when I started but when I turned to the pro side, to train and train I was 14.”
In the Boy’s Under 17’s, the purveyor of last night’s heroics, Ąžuolas Tadaravicius, was dumped out of the tournament, 6-3 at the hands of a delighted Fabrizio Ingrasci of Germany. A bronze medal winner in this event last year, Fabrizio has a chance to exceed that tomorrow afternoon.
He said, “I enjoyed it a lot because I didn’t feel good the whole tournament but at the last 32, I started to feel better and I took my chance and it was awesome. It would be great to go better than bronze but I will play my game and we will see.”
Finally, in the Under 19’s, Wojciech Glab made his way to the quarter-finals with a dominating 7-1 victory over Italy’s Alessio Bonansinga. It’s Glab’s second European Championships and he’s on track for his first-ever medal.
Glab said, “I played a very solid match and I’m happy with that. There’s a lot of great players in Poland but my favourite is Daniel Maciol. I feel good but we will see what happens tomorrow but I feel happy right now. We are a big team and a great atmosphere so that really helps.”
Play also continued today in the Teams competitions, while the 8-ball discipline got underway. 8-ball resumes on Saturday morning and plays down to the quarter-final stage in the Under 17s and 19s, and the last six in the Girls. The final rounds of matches take place on Sunday.
The Predator European Youth Pool Championships is in its 44th year and is presented by the European Pocket Billiard Federation.
Streaming of Tables 1 and 2 for the duration of the Predator European Youth Championships can be found on YouTube, via the Pro Billiard TV channel – https://www.youtube.com/@ProBilliardTV
For all results, live scoring and draw, visit www.epbf.com/tournaments/european-championships/
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