IT WAS THE Netherlands and Germany who claimed the first gold medals at the 2024 DYNAMIC BILLARDS European Championships as Niels Feijen and Pia Filler emerged victorious in the straight pool division. In the men’s, it was Feijen who defeated Joshua Filler 125-56, whilst in the women’s Filler got the better of Austria’s Lena Primus by 75-54. For Filler, it was her third European Championship gold medal while Feijen collected his 12th title.
The men’s final was a game of two halves as Filler accumulated a 56-point lead while Feijen glumly looked on. However, a scratch into the corner pocket from the German, gave the Dutchman his first visit to the table. Feijen eased his way into the match to get within 14 points of Filler at 56-42 but his innings ran out after pocketing the outstanding ball.
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Neither player could assert themselves with safeties but it was Filler who made the error as he missed, playing the harder pot but one with more positional opportunities. The Dutchman couldn’t take full advantage though and they again swapped safety visits, with neither player wanting to cede the initiative with the match finely poised.
Feijen, however, broke the deadlock with a bank and ran the table out for a 69-56 lead. He kept that going and facing potentially his final rack of the match, he split the pack comprehensively to give himself a golden opportunity to take the title. He made no mistakes as he got down to the final ball before Filler conceded.
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Commented Feijen, “It doesn’t get any easier, that’s for sure, with all these young guns. I had a deep focus and there’s less luck involved than the other games and you can dominate more. That plus the experience in the tactical battles of which I won most of them. All round, it was very good. I started so weak though. I played some of my worst ever but I won. I kept some of the good stuff for the end but it was a tough day.
“The table changed and got super humid midway through the match and it was hard to control the cueball. He ran 56 here, then I ran 40-something then a couple of racks here and there and then I ran 60 and out. I’m over the moon! We grew up playing straight pool, I’ve always loved it and it’s not nice to see how under-respected it is by the youngsters now. I’m glad I’m one of the old warriors and I still know how to play the game. When I play the Europeans, I always want to win the straight pool – that’s my main goal,” added Niels.
The bronze medallists were Germany’s Lars Kuckherm and Mustafa Alnar, who claimed Turkish North Cyprus’s first ever European Championship medal.
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In the ladies’ event it was Pia Filler who took the title after a hard-fought match against Lena Primus. It was close in the middle stages before an always-improving Filler got her nose in front down the stretch to win by a 21-point margin. It was Filler’s first gold in 14.1 while Primus’s silver was her first ever adult’s EC medal.
Whilst it was one-out-of-one for Filler, she didn’t feel she was at her best, “I’m not happy with the way I played because it was very poor. I feel like I did not deserve to win, honestly, it was such a bad final. In the end though, a win is a win and it doesn’t matter.
Niels Feijen
“I want to win all the golds, without question, and having a good start in straight pool is always important because it gives you a boost for the week ahead. You get used to the tables so I’m looking forward to the next one now.“
The bronze medallists were Bulgaria’s Kristina Zlateva and Johanna Indlekofer of Germany.
Play resumes at 9.00 tomorrow morning – Monday 8th – with the start of the 10 ball tournaments.