European Championships 2023 – Laszkowski, Vogelmann, Tahti and Gangflot Victorious

THE 8 BALL division at the 2023 Dynamic Billard European Championships played out this evening and there were gold medals for Germany (two), Finland and Norway. The Tampere Exhibition and Sports Centre was filled with a sizeable crowd and the atmosphere added to some of the drama on the tables.

Wheelchair star Jouni Tahti delivered the goods for his sizeable number of supporters with a win over old adversary Henrik Larsson, while 18 year-old Dennis Laszkowski demonstrated the sheer strength of European junior pool by coming through a tough men’s field. Tina Vogelmann secured her second gold of the Championships while Emil-Andre Gangflot produced an astonishing comeback to claim the Under 23 crown.

The men’s final was a classic battle of youth versus experience as 18 year-old Dennis Laszkowski went up against the 38 year-old Pole Mateusz Sniegocki (Poland). The young German won the lag, elected solids and comfortably worked his way through the table to take the opener.

Sniegocki, with a gold and a silver to his name from previous European Championships, levelled things up in the second game. A dry break from Laszkowski got the Polish veteran back to the table but a missed slow roll on the 9 ball, ended his visit. There were some positional shots involved, but Laszkowski cleared the solids to regain the lead at 2-1.

Laszkowski quickly got back to the table and looked set but he snatched at the 1 ball which saw it miss to give his Sniegocki the opportunity. The problem ball was the orange stripe which was only available to the left centre pocket. He managed to nudge a couple of stripes free and despite never really having full control of the white, he finished the rack off very nicely for 2-2.

A run out from the break restored Laszkowski’s lead, but Sniegocki levelled things up with a similar runout in the sixth game. The German lad once again got his nose in front as he cleared the solids from the break in what was a close-fought match.

A shocking miss from Sniegocki on the brown 15 saw Laszkowski return to the table with a superb chance of opening up a two-rack lead. Showing a clear head, he confidently worked his way through the table for a 5-3 lead.

Fortunately for Sniegocki, he got back to the table and despite seeming to struggle, he had enough to keep his hopes alive as he ran the table for 5-4. A lovely bank shot at an awkward angle got Sniegocki on his way in the tenth rack. He battled positional woes throughout the rack but was good enough to level the match at 5-5.

A good break from Dennis saw three balls downed and he selected stripes. There were no problems ahead as the German youngster moved into a 6-5 lead. Then an unfortunate dry break from Sniegocki gave Laszkowski the chance to reach the hill but it wasn’t an easy table. He made it plain sailing though as he ran out for a 7-5 lead.

Breaking for the match, Laszkowski retained the table with a firm opening shot. Electing solids, there didn’t seem to be any obvious problems ahead of him. And so it proved as 18 year-old Dennis Laszkowski ran out to claim the 8 ball gold medal.

An emotional Laszkowski struggled to let his achievement sink in; “It feels unreal to be honest. I’m just very happy that I played that well and that the result also came. I want to play as good as I played here in the 9 ball and then we’ll see what happens.”

Medals – Men
Gold 金牌	Dennis Laszkowski (GER)
Silver 銀牌	Mateusz Sniegocki (POL)
Bronze 銅牌	Ragnar Gronsten (SWE) Wojciech Szewczyk (POL)

Tina Vogelmann (Germany) claimed her second gold medal of the 2023 European Championships as she beat Poland’s Oliwia Zalewska by 6-4 in the Ladies 8 Ball division. In the first discipline of the Championships, Vogelmann had claimed Straight Pool gold after narrowly defeating Eyllul Kibaroglu and this time she led all the way to defeat Zalewska.

The German lady had run undefeated through the competition and with just the 9 ball remaining for individual medals, she has the opportunity to achieve a historic hat-trick of golds.

Commented Vogelmann, “I don’t know what’s happening here! When I come to the European Championships, I’d be happy to win just a bronze or silver medal but two golds are really amazing. I felt so good in the final and was happy that we both shot good and played good pool.

“Oliwia and I have both played many Euro Tours so we know each other very well and I know she’s strong but, in the quarter-finals and semi-finals you don’t get easy opponents so you always have to play your best game and try to be better than your opponent. I know I can lose the same as I can win so I really just try to have fun,” she added.

Medals – Ladies
Gold 金牌	Tina Vogelmann (GER)
Silver 銀牌	Oliwia Zalewska (POL)
Bronze 銅牌	Eyllul Kibaroglu (TUR) Pia Filler (GER)

With plenty of support in a very busy arena, wheelchair legend Jouni Tahti claimed Finland’s second gold medal of the Championships as he defeated arch rival, Henrik Larsson by 5-2. It’s fair to say that both men have totally dominated European Championship wheelchair pool since the division got underway in 1999 and it was a sweet win for Tahti in his homeland.

It was made all the sweeter as Tahti had been bounced into the one-loss side by Larsson in the winners’ qualification. He battled back though, with wins over Fabio Del Zoppo (ITA) and Emil Malanowski to set up the championship match against his old nemesis Larsson. It was to be Tahti’s 30th European Championship gold medal – an incredible feat.

Tahti said, “It was very hard work to win this 30th gold medal of my career as it’s always tough against Henrik. We have a lot of respect for each other, we know each other’s games very well and it’s always a tough one when we meet. I’m going to give it my all for the 9 ball and try and get another gold medal.”

Medals – Wheelchair
Gold 金牌	Jouni Tahti (FIN)
Silver 銀牌	Henrik Larsson (SWE)
Bronze 銅牌	Emil Malanowski (POL) Matej Brajkovic (SLO)

Emil-Andre Gangflot of Norway, produced a sensational come-back to defeat Germany’s Yuma Dorner 8-7 and claim the gold medal in the Under 23 division. The Norwegian had trailed throughout and looked dead and buried at 4-1 and then 5-2 down but somehow managed to claw it back, rack-by-rack. With the match poised at hill-hill, Dorner failed to pocket a ball from the final break shot of the match to hand the table to his opponent. Under immense pressure, Gangflot navigated the table before spearing home a long 8 ball for the win.

In fact, it was a successful defence of the title for Gangflot, having won the same Under 23 8 ball gold medal in Lasko, Slovenia last year.

Commented Gangflot, “It’s amazing, I can’t believe it. After that final, it’s just an incredible feeling. It was a tough rack at the end and I was just focusing and hoping I could do it. I wasn’t thinking much about Yuma when he was leading but I didn’t really feel good in the beginning and made mistakes so I just had to refocus and take every opportunity.”

Medals – Men、Ladies、Wheelchair、U23
Gold 金牌	Emil-Andre Gangflot (NOR)
Silver 銀牌	Yuma Dorner (GER)
Bronze 銅牌	Luca Montanari (ITA) Albert-Roman Stensrod (NOR)

Play continues to tomorrow with the 9-ball division which concludes in the afternoon of Sunday 11th 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