In the single elimination round of the last 16 players, Ivan Galic (CRO) clobbered Sanjin Pehlivanovic (BIH) in a high class thriller with 100:59 in the U19 straight pool of the Dynamic Billard European Pool Championships for U19, U17 and Girls.
The match was a thriller as expected. Both players are known to be able to perform on a high level. Pehlivanovic was probably even favoured over Galic since he took three medals last year in the U19 including the gold medal in 9-ball. He also took the bronze medal this year in Treviso in the men’s 8-ball division. But Galic is also not unknown. He currently is the defending Champion in U19 8-ball and last year’s silver medallist in U19 10-ball. The expectations in that match were high and they were fulfilled. Galic had the better start. Pehlivanovic lost the lag and played an opening shot, leaving a tough long shot for Galic. The Croatian fired it in and ran 18 balls on Pehlivanovic. Then, Pehlivanovic got back to the table and only made one ball. Galic accepted the gift and put another 52 points into his account to extend his lead to 70:11. Then the match cooled down a bit. Suddenly, Pehlivanovic got on fire and pulled back some points from Galic. Trailing 59:83, Pehlivanovic ran out of position and played a safety, leaving a long distance shot for Galic. The Croatian pocketed the shot and ran the remaining balls to win the match with 100:59. This puts him into the round of the last 8 players in the U19 straight pool division of the Dynamic Billard European Pool Championships Youth while Pehlivanovic has to settle for 9th place.
Ivan Galic (left) and Kledio Kaci
One of today’s highlights was definitely the match between Kledio Kaci (ALB) v Moritz Neuhausen (GER) in the winner’s qualification round of the Under 17s. Kaci, Eklent’s brother was having his first European Championship match in front of him while Neuhausen has played already in Leende in 2017 and last year here in Veldhoven, having won a total of three Bronze medals. Today, Neuhausen had the first open shot in the match but he missed a long 2-ball. When Kaci got to the table, he cleared it three and a half times and took a 49:0 lead over Neuhausen with an impressing performance. He then ran out of position and failed pocketing the 5-ball along the side rail into the corner pocket. Neuhausen got to the table with Kaci being two-thirds down the track already. But the German played quite solid and also performed on a high level. However, after 21 balls it was Kaci at the table again. The Albanian ran 8 balls before he again ran out of position and missed a shot with an open table in front of him. Neuhausen recovered a bit but only made 12 balls before he got no position again. He played a safety shot which Kaci replied to with a safety himself. Then, Neuhausen took a wrong decision by going for a difficult combination shot rather than playing a safety. He missed and Kaci cleared the table and the next balls which brought him to the needed scoreline of 75 points. 75:33 was the final result in favour of Kaci who earned his seat in the single elimination round of the last 32 players. Neuhausen needed another victory on the loser’s side in order to be able to join Kaci. Neuhausen did, and in the next round he defeated David Mrazek (CZE) with 75:38 while Kaci lost to Szymon Kural (POL) with 67:75. In the round of the last 16 players, Neuhausen won again. This time, he beat Arsenii Kovalerchik (RUS) 75:46 and booked his seat among the top 8 players of the U17 straight pool competition.
The Dynamic Billard European Youth Championships 2019 will commence tomorrow morning at 09:00 CET with matches in the 10-ball individuals competition Girls and the quarterfinals of the U17 and U19. The straight pool finals are scheduled for 13:00 CET tomorrow.
The Championships are played on 24 tables which are all streamed LIVE throughout the whole event. In order to be able to follow all the action LIVE, premium membership can be obtained at www.kozoom.com. Once a premium membership is held, all events for the respective period of time can be viewed LIVE. Additionally, a huge video gallery is contained in the website.
The event is 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.epconline.eu or visit us on Facebook for regular news clips or contact our press office [email protected].