THE ANNUAL GATHERING of the very best of European junior pool gets underway tomorrow as the PREDATOR European Youth Pool Championships begins its eight-day run at the Terme Olimia resort in Slovenia. Contested in three categories – Under 17 and Under 19 boys and Under 19 girls – there are a total of 13 events being contested from Tuesday 15th to Tuesday 22nd July.
This is the 44th running of the European Youth European Championships and the inaugural event took place in Bern, Switzerland in 1981. The European Championships has proven to be the first staging post to international success for many of Europe’s biggest champions. From today’s crop of European stars, the likes of Wojciech Szewczyk (Poland), Germany’s Joshua Filler, Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz of Spain and Russia’s Fedor Gorst have all claimed gold medals at the European Youth Championships in their pasts.
With pool talent from across the continent hoping to fulfil their long-held dreams, there are plenty in attendance with impressive résumés. The likes of Felix Vogel (GER), Walter Laikre (SWE), Riku Romppanen (FIN), Shirin Volery (SUI) and Linnea Hjalmarstrom (SWE) will all be fancied to take home a medal or two.
In total 32 countries are represented with 79 players in the Under 17 division, 51 in the Under 19s and 15 in the Girls division. Over the duration of the championships, a whopping 983 matches will be contested.
The Tournament Director overseeing proceedings is EPBF Youth Sports Director, Ann-Sofie Löfgren. She said, “I’m super excited and one of the reasons is that when we asked our members to send in their wish lists, we realised it was so many players – it was a new record – and we had to take in four extra tables to manage because we don’t want to say no to players that want to play.
“Usually, we have a limit but when we realised that they wanted to send more athletes we wanted to fulfil their wishes. 32 countries in attendance is another record for the tournament which is something to be very proud of.
“The kids still have fun and they can do other things besides pool and make friends for life. They’re here to enjoy themselves, especially in a place like this where there are pools, water slides, etc. For the new ones, the arena is what they see on TV and suddenly they have a chance to play in it in front of the cameras.
“Slovenia has some really good players and also Sweden and of course Germany. But a country like Bulgaria for example, has developed a strong youth programme so they can’t be discounted. The members are trying to develop youth pool in their countries and we try to do good stuff. We encourage them and try to prepare them for what’s coming. You have to be here to feel the atmosphere and how much it means for the kids to be here,” she added.
With 13 separate tournaments, the start and finish dates of each event is as follows:
Starts Completes
Straight Pool (U17) Tues 15 July Weds 16 July
Straight Pool (U19) Tues 15 July Weds 16 July
10-Ball (U17) Weds 16 July Fri 18 July
10-Ball (U19) Weds 16 July Fri 18 July
10-Ball (Girls) Weds 16 July Fri 18 July
8-Ball (U17) Fri 18 July Sun 20 July
8-Ball (U19) Fri 18 July Sun 20 July
8-Ball (Girls) Fri 18 July Sun 20 July
9-Ball (U17) Sun 20 July Tues 22 July
9-Ball (U19) Sun 20 July Tues 22 July
9-Ball (Girls) Sun 20 July Tues 22 July
Teams (U17) Thurs 17 July Tues 22 July
Teams (U19) Thurs 17 July Tues 22 July
This year sees a new streaming platform for the Predator European Championship events. Tables 1 and 2 will be streamed throughout on YouTube, via the Pro Billiard TV channel – https://www.youtube.com/@ProBilliardTV
For all results, live scoring and draw, visit www.epbf.com/tournaments/european-championships/
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