In a really exciting clash in the men’s team event between Team Netherlands and Team Poland, the Polish team remained the upper hand and handed the Dutch team a painful 2:0 defeat in the quarterfinal of the men’s team event at the Dynamic Billard European Championships for Men, Women and Wheelchair Athletes in the Salgados Palace Hotel in Albufeira, Portugal.
The Dutch team today was consisting of Niels Feijen, Marc Bijsterbosch and Marco Teutscher. Feijen and Bijsterbosch have already taken Gold Medals in the individuals earlier this week so they can be regarded as the highly favourite team. But Team Poland also had strong players in their arsenal. Mateusz Sniegocki, Mieszko Fortunski and Tomasz Kaplan were defending the Polish colours today in the quarterfinal match against The Netherlands. Fortunski wasted no time with Teutscher, winning the 9-ball with 9:3 over the Dutch. At that time, Feijen was leading in 10-ball and Bijsterbosch was still struggling in 8-ball. However, Kaplan closed the book on the match by wining the 8-ball 8:2 and gaining a 2:0 victory over the Dutch team. That victory puts the Polish Team through to the semi-finals in the men’s team division where they will face Team Austria as opponents. The Austrians were victorious over Team Croatia in their quarterfinal match. The other semi-final will be played between Team Spain and Team Finland. The Finnish Team had already ousted the defending Champion Team Germany today and stood tall against Team Russia in the quarterfinal while the Spanish Team defeated Team Denmark 2:0.
Left to right: M. Fortunski, T. Kaplan, M. Sniegocki, N. Feijen, M. Bijsterbosch and M. Teutscher
In the women’s division, Team The Netherlands will go up against Team Spain who won their loser’s qualification match in a shootout over Team Poland. The other semi-final match will be played between Team Russia and Team Switzerland.
Earlier today, three rounds of 9-ball individuals were played. In the men’s division, many surprising results happened in the winner’s qualification round. Nick van den Berg (NED) took down Alexander Kazakis (GRE) in a thriller with 9:8. In the same round, Marc Glatz came up with a huge surprise and sent Mateusz Sneigocki (POL) to the loser’s side by winning the match in a heartbreaker with 9:8 as well. Niels Feijen (NED) wiped the floor with Denis Grabe (EST) and handed him a doughnut, winning 9:0 over the Estonian. Unusually clear was also the match between David Alcaide (ESP) and Albin Ouschan (AUT). Alcaide taught Ouschan a lesson and left the table with a 9:2 victory underneath his belt. Osman Sanlisoy (TNC) managed to win his match in the winner’s qualification round with 9:8 over favoured Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz (ESP).
In the women’s division, tournament was continued with the winner’s qualification round as well. Jasmin Ouschan (AUT) came up with a 7:5 victory over strong opponent Oliwia Czuprynska (POL). Veronika Ivanovskaia (GER) still had good wind underneath her wings from yesterday’s victory over Kelly Fisher (GBR). Today, she defeated Kristina Tkach (RUS) with 7:5 and marched on into the single elimination round of the last 16 players.
In the wheelchair 9-ball competition, Jouni Tahti remained a foot in the door for a shot at the title, winning 7:4 over Leszek Blumczynski (POL). Roy Kimberley (GBR) won the all-British clash with Daniel Luton (GBR) 7:4 as well.
Tonight, two more rounds of team competition will be played.
Tomorrow, the tournament will continue at 09:00 GMT with matches from the 9-ball individuals competition.
Every day, one match from the events will be shown LIVE on the Facebook page of the EPBF. All Facebook users may check out the high standard of quality which is provided for all the events and see what the Kozoom members receive all the time. You can see all the matches live via www.kozoom.com who stream the whole event on 24 tables on the internet LIVE. The FB live matches are announced on the EPBF Facebook page around noon every day. Results and schedule can be found at www.europeanpoolchampionships.
The event is 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 www.epbf.com, visit us on Facebook or check out our youtube channel for regular news clips or contact our press office [email protected].