The European Billiards Championships in Antalya/Turkey came to a crowning conclusion today with the medal decisions in three team competitions.
European Champion in the Men's 3-Cushion National Teams was Greece, while the Netherlands won a thriller in the Women's final. Last but not the least, the team from Sinop Spor (Turkey) became European Champions in the 3-Cushion event for Club Teams on the Small Table.
3-Cushion Men's National Teams:
The Men's Team competition ended with a real bang. In the final, Greece played against Sweden. While Nikos Polychronopoulos dominated the first singles against Torbjörn Blomdahl, it was the other way round at the second table. Here Michael Nilsson won clearly for Sweden against Kostantinos Kokkoris, so that it came to the decisive doubles.
Michael Nilsson surprisingly missed the opening ball and Polychronopoulos/Kokkoris mercilessly took advantage. They scored fourteen points in a row before Polychronopoulos missed the match point by a hair's breadth. Sweden, of course, did not want to admit defeat yet, but Torbjörn Blomdahl also missed a point by millimetres. So, Greece was back on the table and Kostantinos Kokkoris took the second match point. Before the carom with the third ball had even taken place, the two Greeks were already jubilantly in each other's arms.
The two semifinals between Greece and the Netherlands and Sweden and Turkey did not suffer from a lack of suspense either. Both matches went into the scotch doubles after split singles. The Netherlands took an immediate 5:0 lead, but Greece fought back to finish the match 15:7.
The match between Sweden and Turkey was similar. After both teams had won a singles match each, it went into the deciding doubles match. The Turkish duo was already leading 13:8, but Blomdahl/Nilsson turned the match with nerves of steel with a run of 7 points.
The Netherlands was represented by Dick Jaspers and Jean-Paul de Bruijn, for Turkey Semih Sayginer and Tayfun Tasdemir played.
3-Cushion Women's National Teams:
The first European Champions in this new competition were the Dutch duo with Therese Klompenhouwer and Monique van Exter. Against the Turkish team with Gülsen Degener and Guzin Mujde Karakasli, the decision was only made in the scotch doubles.
This had become necessary because the European singles champion Klompenhouwer won against Degener, but Monique van Exter lost to Karakasli at the same time. In the scotch doubles, neither team managed much at first and, of course, neither team was able to gain a decisive advantage. It was not until the 22nd inning that Klompenhouwer/Monique van Exter managed to play a run of six points, which finally let them win the overtime with 12:8 points.
In the two semi-finals this morning, Belgium and Denmark both lost 0:4. At the award ceremony, Jaimie Buelens / Danielle Le Bruijn and Charlotte Sörensen/Nanna Petersen nevertheless received the bronze medal, beaming with joy.
3-Cushion Club Teams, Small Table:
After an all-Turkish final, the gold medal in this competition goes to Sinop Spor with Segmen Ozbas and Dogukan Cobraci. The two narrowly beat their compatriots Emin Gayret and Tarik Vavuz of Göztepe Spor 30:26 and 30:27 respectively.
Also in third place is a Turkish club, Ankara Hemsin Spor. Serdas Bas drew against Segmen Ozbas in his semifinal match, but Mübin Isili lost out to Dogukan Corbaci 25:30. Meanwhile, in the second semifinal, the Danes from BK Gröndal, with Tommy Ebeling and Daniel Kristiansen, lost 0:4 to Göztepe Spor and also received the bronze medal at the award ceremony in the evening.
So, nine tournament days with a total of fifteen new European Champions come to an end. The fifth all-in-one championship will go down in the history of the continental federation CEB as a highly successful event and the best advertisement for the sport of billiards. In cooperation with the sponsors and the Turkish Billiards Federation with President Ersan Ercan, a smooth event was set up as one could only dream of before the start.
The numerous helpers in the form of tournament management and referees acted very attentively at all times and thus gave the European Championship a professional framework.
Via tv.kozoom.com one could follow the complete event live on all 28 tables and via the official media page one can meanwhile access more than 2,300 published photos as well as all links to the results, press releases and further information.
CEB President Diane Wild concluded the European Championships in the evening in a solemn speech during the last award ceremonies and a small closing ceremony.
She again expressly thanked the sponsors ZEKI Billiards, Simonis, Aramith, Taom, Longoni, Decathlon, Sportotoand the media partners Kozoom and Touch PR, without whom such an event would never be possible.
You are welcome to use this press release for republication with a source attribution to "CEB | Billard1.net".
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