The European Billiards Championships in Brandenburg an der Havel/Germany was officially opened this Saturday evening, with a one-hour atmospheric celebration where the President of the continental association CEB, Diane Wild, officially opened the event. Mrs. Dr. Tietlind Tieman, former lord mayor of the city of Brandenburg an der Havel and now member of the German Parliament, mentioned the importance of the event for the city and thanked Mrs. Helga Blawid, her billiards club and all the helping hands for their effort.
Right before the opening ceremony the first European Champion was crowned. The two Dutchmen Erik Vijverberg and René Dericks faced each other in the Artistic-event. Dericks was favorite but the unusual system that was played for the first time made it a little tough for both players. At the start Vijverberg made a terrific 83 points in one inning, with his fellow countryman being a bit shocked about that. From then on both players made their points and showed great artistic performances, but Dericks was unable to reduce the gap between him and his opponent and it was Erik Vijverberg who was the first to reach the goal of 200 points. Marvin Heinrich from Germany as well as Kevin Tran from France fell short in the semifinals and therefore finished the event with the bronze medal.
Another Dutch winner brought the balkline 71/2-tournament. Raymund Swertz was the man to beat and in the quarterfinals it was Eddy Leppens from Belgium who almost made it. At a score of 200:200 the extension was needed. Swertz managed to make the necessary 20 points whilst Leppens failed after a round of only 6 points. In the semi final it was Swertz ‘s countryman Michel van Silfhout but after only three innings the match was already over with a score of 200:130 in favour of Swertz.
On the other side of the tableau Germany’s Sven Daske managed to beat Marek Faus (Czech Republic) to reach the final. That last match was close only in the first three innings, Swertz then ran the missing 111 points to celebrate another European Championship title.
The final of the Women’s Free Game tournament finished very fast. Magali Declunder from France managed to score the necessary 150 points in the first inning. Afterwards, of course her opponent Christel Willemse from the Netherlands had the chance to equal the score but naturally the pressure was very high. Too high, as it turned out a short time later, Willemse only scored a few points until she missed.
A few hours earlier she certainly had nerves of steel as she managed to make the required six points to win the match by a score of 150:144 against Germany’s Susanne Stengel-Ponsing. The second bronze medal goes to Monique van Exter (Netherlands) who lost 42:150 to Declunder.
According to the previous matches Denizcan Akkoca from Turkey was the favorite in the 3-cushion-event for players under 17 years. However, finals often turn out a little different. Demitrios Seleventas from Greece scored 10 points in the first two innings with Akkoca being a little shocked about that. During the next innings he failed to reduce the gap so it was Seleventas who had his first matchpoint at a score of 29:19. The final then became very dramatic. The Greek youngster failed to make the final point six times and Akkoca gradually came closer and closer. Seleventas finally made the 30th point to become European Champion. Both Luis Mira (Spain) and Jas Gaspari from Germany finished third. Gaspari was on the way to beat Selevenats in the semis but in the end the Greek won with a close score of 30:28.
In the 5-pins individual event the title holder Matteo Gualemi is already out of the tournament. He was seeded for the round of the last 32 but had to play against his fellow countryman Michelangelo Aniello, also a former European Champion. The whole match was absolutely thrilling and on a high level. At the end it was Aniello who had the better nerves and a bit of luck to win the fifth and final set by a score of 60:56-points.
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