Finland’s Kim Laaksonen and Germany’s Tina Vogelmann are the straight pool champions at the Dynamic Billiards European Championships, as they both came through close run matches to claim gold in Tampere. Despite the varying races, both matches finished almost simultaneously as cheers rang through the arena and Laaksonen needed to compose himself for match ball.
After the match, a clearly ecstatic Laaksonen said, “I mean it’s incredible. I’ve never had this feeling before. I’d won a couple of bronze medals and one silver so yeah, it feels amazing. I was thinking, I can’t do anything here as Yannick ran 91 balls in about 15 minutes but then he gave me one chance and I ran a 79. I’m so shocked!
“I’ve never been so nervous in my life for those last few balls. My hands were shaking, my legs were shaking but it was fun though. What else can you hope, winning in your home country – it’s perfect!”
Kim Laaksonen (FIN 芬蘭)｜©EPBF
The Finn, was up against it in 18 year-old Yannick Pongers, who is one of the hottest young prospects in European pool and won two golds and a silver at last year’s European Junior Championships. In fact, the Dutchman opened up a 91 point lead in the race to 125 match to leave his opponent with everything to do when he finally got to the table.
The 31 year-old Finn though, scratched when on 6 points to hand the table back and seemingly leave himself in a deep hole. Pongers, however only lasted three balls before getting into a spot which forced a miss.
Laaksonen really needed a significant visit this time to get back into the match and he got his head down and moved his score onto 85 before a miss gave Pongers the opportunity to close the match out. He completed the rack to take him to 108 but left a nasty cut on the 6 ball into a blind pocket to start the next rack. He missed it to allow Laaksonen back to the table trailing 85-108.
Laaksonen took gold in Straight Pool｜©EPBF
It was an opportunity for the Finn but the bulk of the balls were clustered around the spot but he methodically picked them off to end the rack just nine points behind Pongers. He completed the next rack to give himself a 5 point lead and leave the finishing line 12 points away. He made no mistakes and was clearly thrilled to have won his first European Championship gold medal in his home country.
In a field of 85 players, Laaksonen ran undefeated through the event, beating Italy’s Daniele Corrieri in the winners’ qualification round. He followed that with wins over Konrad Juszczyszyn, Jan Van Lierop and Francisco Diaz-Pizarro before eliminating Joao Grilo at the semi-final stage.
| Medals – Men | |
| Gold 金牌 | Kim Laaksonen (FIN 芬蘭) |
| Silver 銀牌 | Yannick Pongers (NED 荷蘭) |
| Bronze 銅牌 | Joao Grilo (POR 葡萄牙) Daniel Maciol (POL 波蘭) |
Tina Vogelmann (GER 德國)｜©EPBF
In the ladies’ division, it was a successive gold for Germany as Tina Vogelmann followed up on Ina Kaplan’s win last year as she beat Turkey’s Eyllul Kibaroglu 75-67 in a close-fought match in which either player could have won. Vogelmann had trailed 35-67 but a run of 24 got her right back in it and when Kibaroglu faltered with the finishing line in sight, she stepped up to claim her first-ever European Championship gold.
Kibaroglu was perhaps the in-form player, having carried off the Women’s Euro Tour event which concluded last Monday but Vogelmann battled hard and kept herself together in the critical final rack.
Tina Vogelmann of Germany won the gold in Straight Pool｜©EPBF
Commented Vogelmann, “I’m totally overwhelmed. I didn’t expect this. I didn’t play as well as I think I can do to be honest, but overall, I’m very happy that I could fight back in the final as I was a little bit behind against Eyllul, who is always strong.”
Previously, Vogelmann had collected three bronze, medals, all in straight pool, but this time she went to the top.
“I didn’t look at the score; I only looked at the table and at the job in front of me and I tried go ball for ball and see what happens. I could see that Eyllul was struggling a little bit as she made some mistakes – of course, I also did – but I didn’t watch the score.”
| Medals – Ladies | |
| Gold 金牌 | Tina Vogelmann (GER 德國) |
| Silver 銀牌 | Eyllul Kibaroglu (TUR 土耳其) |
| Bronze 銅牌 | Melanie Sussenguth (GER 德國) Diana Stateczny (GER 德國) |
Play continues to tomorrow with the 10-ball division which concludes on the evening of Monday 5th June.
All the matches can be viewed live by visiting www.epbf.com/tournaments/eurotour/ and clicking on the ‘LIVE’ button. This will take you through to viewing options. In addition, selected matches will be streamed on Facebook Live on the EPBF page.
Results, live scoring, and draw are available at www.epbf.com
©EPBF
Laaksonen 與 Vogelmann 奪下歐錦賽首項目金牌
2023 歐洲撞球錦標賽在芬蘭坦佩雷的會展運動中心結束了第一項比賽項目 14-1 (traight pool)。男子組由地主選手 Kim Laaksonen 為芬蘭在本屆歐錦賽摘下首金，女子組則有德國選手 Tina Vogelmann 拿下個人首座歐錦賽桂冠。
Kim Laaksonen 在男子組 14-1 項目中保持不敗之姿，半決賽以 125-65 取勝於西班牙老將 Francisco Diaz-Pizarro (Mezz) ，四強賽中接著以 125-94 打敗葡萄牙選手 Joao Grilo (Mezz) 進入冠軍戰。Laaksonen 金牌戰中的對手是年僅 18歲的荷蘭年輕小將 Yannick Pongers，他在去年的青少年歐錦賽中取得兩金一銀的佳績，可說是歐洲撞球界最炙手可熱的球員之一。Pongers 先以 125-53 擊敗捷克選手 Roman Hybler (Mezz) ，半決賽再以 125-43 擊敗波蘭年輕好手 Daniel Macioł (Mezz)，闖進決賽。
Laaksonen took gold in Straight Pool｜©EPBF
Laaksonen 開局後，輪到 Pongers 上場，Pongers 僅大約 15分鐘的時間就狂炸了 91分，他的對手是一點機會都沒能靠近球台。Pongers 在拿下第 91分後無法再繼續進攻，讓 Laaksonen 終於有機會上場，回到球台上的他在打下6分之後，母球落入中袋，這一致命犯規讓 Pongers 再度上場，然而此次的 Pongers 沒有在一輪的狂轟猛炸，拿下三分後就又將球權給到他的對手 (94-6)。Laaksonen 此次緊緊地把握住機會狂追 79分 (94-85)，Pongers 雖後又拉開差距，但最終 Laaksonen 逆轉以 125-108 擊敗荷蘭小將，奪下第一面歐錦賽金牌。
Laaksonen 賽後說道: “我原以為大勢已去，因為 Yannick 在大約 15 分鐘之內就打進了 91 球，但後來他給到我一次機會，而我一口氣打進了 79球，連我自己都感到驚訝! 我的手腳都在顫抖著，迄今為止我從未有過在擊打最後幾球之時那麼緊張的。這一切都太不可思議，贏球的感覺很棒，而能在自己的國家拿下勝利更是太完美了!
Tina Vogelmann of Germany won the gold in Straight Pool｜©EPBF
女子組方面，德國選手 Tina Vogelmann (Mezz/HOW Tip) 分別在八強與半決賽分別以 75:67、75:55 擊敗 Veronika Ivanovskaia (HOW Tip) 與 Diana Stateczny 兩位隊友晉級到決賽，此前 Vogelmann 在歐錦賽 Straight Pool (14-1) 項目上共收穫過三面銅牌，而她的對手將是前幾天剛拿下個人女子歐巡賽第二座冠軍的土耳其選手 Eylül Kibaroğlu (Mezz)。Kibaroğlu 八強以 75-22 輕取挪威新生代選手 Nina Torvund (Mezz) 半決賽在此 75:50 淘汰 Vogelmann 另一位隊友 Melanie Süßenguth (Mezz)，前進金牌戰。
Tina Vogelmann 在 35-67 落後之際，憑藉一桿連吃 24球讓她重返領先地位，而眼看勝利在即的 Eylül Kibaroğlu 突然在終點前躊躇了起來，在這場勢均力敵的比賽中，最終 Vogelmann 以 75-67 擊敗 Kibaroglu，收穫個人首面歐錦賽金牌。
Vogelmann 表示: “老實說，我沒有預料到自己會贏。比賽中的我沒有去注意比數，我讓自己專注在球台上，做好我的工作，一球接一球地打，然後看看結果將會是如何。Eyllul 是位強勁的球員，比賽中的我一度落後，但總體來說，雖然我的表現並不如自己所預期來得好，但我仍然很高興能在決賽中反擊並拿下勝利。”