The second Discipline of the Dynamic Billiard European Pool Championships for Youth, the 10-ball, ended late Wednesday night here in Lasko, Slovenia. Germany won its second gold medal and rose to the top of the medal standings.
In the girls’ series, Austria’s Sarah Kapeller won the European Championship in a very tight match where the Austrian was seen taking the 4-0 lead. The other half of the final, her opponent, Daria Cheprasova from Belarus, took her time out at this point and caught up with the game again, always rising to 4-4. After exciting stages, the gold medal and at the same time her first medal was won by the 17-year-old Kapeller.
Hotel Thermana Park Lasko
The U17 series also saw a real thriller between Dutch Yannick Pongers and German Eric Mattern. Both players showed nervous grips along the game and eventually in this match too the winner was decided in the final rack. After the colorful stages, with the young Dutchman missing the nine ball, Mattern got a chance to catch the match victory and thus already the second gold medal of the tournament traveled to Germany.
In the U19 series, Moritz Neuhausen, the experienced German who already won straight pool here in Slovenia and Emil-Andre Gangfløt from Norway met in the final. Both finalists came to the U19 series as champions from previous European Championships for Youth played in 2019. In a high-level match, Gangfløt bested his opponent with a score of 7-4 this time.
Tommi Lamminaho, EPBF Youth Sports Director
As mentioned earlier, Straight pool gold in the U19 series was won by Moritz Neuhausen after a convincing performance. The young German also made the longest series in the tournament, 93 points. Silver was won by Szymon Kural from Poland.
In the U17 series, the gold medal will travel to Switzerland at the end of the tournament around Silvan Starkermann. The silver medal was won by Polish Wiktor Fortunski.
After five tournaments, Germany is at the top of the medal table with two golds, one silver and two bronze medals.
U19 division: L to R: Moritz Neuhausen (GER), Emil-Andre Gangfløt (NOR), Aliaksei Remez (BLR) & Ihor Lialin (UKR)
Boys U19 10-ball
1. GANGFLØT Emil-Andre (Norway)
2. NEUHAUSEN Moritz (Germany)
3. LIALIN Ihor (Ukraine)
3. REMEZ Aliaksei (Belarus)
Girls division: Daria Cheprasova (BLR), Sarah Kapeller (AUT), VORONINA Varvara Voronina (RUS) & Natalia Gabriel (GER)
Girls 10-ball
1. KAPELLER Sarah (Austria)
2. CHEPRASOVA Daria (Belarus)
3. GABRIEL Natalia (Germany)
3. VORONINA Varvara (Russia)
U17 division: Yannick Pongers (NED), MATTERN Eric Mattern (GER), Luka Galic (CRO) & Aleksandr Chernyshov (RUS)
Boys U17 10-ball
1. MATTERN Eric (Germany)
2. PONGERS Yannick The (Netherlands)
3. GALIC Luka (Croatia)
3. CHERNYSHOV Aleksandr (Russia)
Silvian Starkermann (SUI), the winner in the U17 division
Boys U17 Straight pool
1. STARKERMANN Silvan (Switzerland)
2. FORTUNSKI Wiktor (Poland)
3. STACHOWIAK Sambor (Poland)
3. TEITTINEN Juho (Finland)
Moritz Neuhausen (GER), the winner in the U19 division
Boys U19 Straight pool
1. NEUHAUSEN Moritz (Germany)
2. KURAL Szymon (Poland)
3. ARDA David (Austria)
3. JAMORSKI Oskar (Poland)
All photo © EPBF