The straight pool competition has commenced at the first day of the Dynamic Billard European Championships for Men, Women and Wheelchair Athletes in Albufeira, Portugal. After last year’s remarkable double victory for Austria through the Ouschan siblings, the focus was on them today again. And they both stood tall.
In the men’s division, Albin Ouschan had Daniele Corrieri (ITA) in his first match. Not an easy task for Ouschan whose scalp was up for grabs today. Corrieri opened the match with a run of 55 balls which was quite a decent inning for the Italian. Ouschan only managed to run one rack before he allowed Corrieri rack to the table. The Italian made 4 balls but then ran out of position. He attempted a jump shot but failed to pocket it. That sealed this fate in that match. The defending Champion got to the table and ran the remaining 86 balls which he needed to win the match 100:59 and advance to the winner’s qualification round, wending Corrieri to the loser’s side. In the next round, Ouschan had a lot of work to do. He was up against Maxim Dudanets (RUS) which again was anything else but an easy draw for him. To the contrary, the young Russian played very steady and self-confident and put a lot off pressure on Ouschan. After 7 innings the score was 93:80 in favour of Dudanets. He was at the table and had a promising break shot on the table in front of him. He tried to fire it in the corner pocket but missed it by a millimetre. That gave Ouschan another chance which he used to finish the match 100:93 in his favour. These two victories from today take Albin Ouschan to the single elimination round of the last 32 men in the straight pool competition.
Another remarkable story revolved around Andreas Roschkowsky (GER) today. The sharp-shooting German encountered „Napoleon“ Marcus Chamat (SWE) in his first match. He ran 100 balls in the first inning and did not allow Chamat to the table at all. In the next round, Roschkowsky met Niels „The Terminator“ Feijen (NED). In that match, ironically he received the same fate. Feijen only needed one inning to destroy Roschkowsky and advance to the single elimination. What goes around, comes around… On the losers side, Roschkowsky met with Cirangir Baran (TUR) who had no chance against the German. 100:31 was the clear result in favour of Roschkowsky.
Probably the toughest defeat of the day way handed to Denis Grabe (EST) in his match against Tomasz Kaplan (POL). When Grabe was trailing 78:81 when he got to the table. Kaplan just fell out of position and missed a shot, giving an open table to Grabe. The Estonian came in too straight for the break ball and almost did not have an angle to break the rack. But he pocketed the break ball with the cue ball rolling towards the head rail where it came to rest almost frozen. Being on 99 points, Grabe missed the last ball and gave the table back to Kaplan. The Polish showed nerves of steel and ran the remaining 19 balls he needed to win the match with the closest of all results, 100:99. On the loser’s side, Grabe took on Daniel Kandi (DEN). This match turned into a real thriller. At 98:98, both players entered into a safety battle with Grabe having the better end on his side, winning the match by a whisker 100:96.
In the women’s straight pool competition, defending Champion Jasmin Ouschan (AUT) started her mission „title defence“ as usual. She showed no mercy to her opponents, winning 75:48 over Veronica Hubrtova (CZE) and 75:37 over Marharyta Fefilava (BLR). Undefeated she marched on into the single elimination round of the last 16 women. Probably her toughest opponent here, Kristina Tkach (RUS) has also shown her class today. She took down Kateryna Polovinchuk (UKR) 75:17, then destroyed Tamara Peeters-Rademakers (NED) 75:6 and creamed Christine Feldmann (SUI) 75:13 for her spot amongst the last 16 women.
Tomorrow, the Dynamic Billard European Championships for Men, Women and Wheelchair Athletes will continue at 09:00 GMT with matches from the men’s straight pool single elimination last 32 players.
Every day, one match from the events will be shown LIVE on the Facebook page of the EPBF. All Facebook users may check out the high standard of quality which is provided for all the events and see what the Kozoom members receive all the time. You can see all the matches live via www.kozoom.com who stream the whole event on 24 tables on the internet LIVE. The FB live matches are announced on the EPBF Facebook page around noon every day. Results and schedule can be found at www.eurotouronline.com so why not come and check out all the LIVE action of the Dynamic Billard European Championships for Men, Women and Wheelchair Athletes starting Saturday 18th March at 09:00h GMT.
The event will be 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.eurotouronline.com, visit us on Facebook or check out our youtube channel for regular news clips or contact our press office [email protected].