The upcoming Dynamic Billard Austrian Open and Ballazzo Austrian Women Open which will both start tomorrow morning at 09:00 CET in Alpina Sports & Wellness Hotel in Alpendorf, St. Johann i.Pg., Austria, carry the largest number of entrants ever in a Euro-Tour.
With one day of break in between, the Euro-Tour is on its dawn. Yesterday, the Dynamic Billard European Championships for men, women and wheelchair athletes have come to an end after 11 days of tough competition. We had anti-doping controls here yesterday and the day was determined by six (6!) hours of LIVE TV on the Austrian National TV station ORF Sports+. Today, more and more players are bussing in for the Euro-Tours while the ones that are already here for two weeks took the opportunity to relax a bit. Sitting in the beautiful mountain sun and having an ice-cream, playing volleyball on the field in front of the hotel or running around in the mountain paths were just a few options that were made use of today. The overall morale is still very good with all players. As the day grew older, more and more players pilgrimaged to the venue and started their practice in order to be in top shape by tomorrow morning.
215 participants in the Open event plus 52 women add up to 267 players total. That increases the former record, held from last year in Portugal, by two players. „We are constantly having good numbers of participants throughout the past two years“, stated the President of the EPBF, Gre Leenders, „and that is a good proof for us that our work and efforts are highly appreciated by the players.“ „We have many players that travel very far from places like Singapore, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and other faraway places since they see that the quality that the Euro-Tour is providing is second to none. No other tournament series in the World can be compared to what we are doing“, added Leenders.
However, with so many participants the events have about reached the capacity of what is possible to run in three days on 24 tables. Looking at the names it can be seen that the complete crème de la crème of European pool-billiards is in attendance here. The tournament carries 34.000,-€ prize money in the open and 3.000,-€ prize money in the women’s event. Maybe even more interesting than the money part will be the ranking points that can be achieved here in St. Johann i.Pg. The rankings determine the selection for players to go to World Championships or international invitational events. Therefore, the Euro-Tour is the most important tournament to many European players.
Action starts here tomorrow morning at 09:00 CET in the Open event with matches of the first rounds. At 12:00 CET, the first matches of the women’s event will be played.
The tournaments will be played on 24 tables which will all be in a livestream throughout the events. In order to be able to follow all the action LIVE, premium membership can be purchased at www.kozoom.com. Once a premium membership is held, all events for the respective period of time can be viewed LIVE. Additionally, a huge video gallery is contained in the website.
The event will 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 eurotouronline.com, visit us on Facebook or check out our youtube channel for regular news clips or contact our press office.