The European Billiards Championships 2023 in Antalya/Turkey have begun. Today, Saturday morning, the competitions in the disciplines 5-pins, 1-cushion and 3-cushion for players under 25 years of age have begun.
A total of fifteen new European Champions will be crowned during the upcoming nine tournament days.
In 1-cushion, a total of 24 athletes competed in eight groups of three, with only the group winner reaching the quarterfinals. Defending champion Bernard Baudoin (France) had to admit defeat to his compatriot Bernard Villiers right at the start. Since Villiers also won his second match against the German Sven Daske, Baudoin was eliminated from the competition.
Tomorrow, Sunday, the first finals are on the agenda, where Cadre-specialist Raymund Swertz (Netherlands) will face Bernard Villiers. The quarterfinal between Raul Cuenca (Spain) and Frenchman Willy Gerimont will certainly be very interesting as well.
In 5-pins, a total of 48 athletes were divided into 16 groups, with the first and second place in each group advancing to tomorrow's final round. As in previous years, the Italians are the favourites, although the Germans, Swiss, Danes and French are also considered to have a chance of winning a medal.
Defending champion Michelangelo Aniello had no difficulties at all in his group to prevail against his competitors from Germany and the Netherlands. Of course, his Italian compatriots are also still in the running. Last year's European runner-up Kasper Kristoffersen (Denmark) also won his group. Among others, the two Germans Max Gabel and Martin Maltzahn also managed to do so.
Last but not the least, the U25 athletes started their
3-cushion competition as well. A total of 24 athletes competed in eight groups, with the top two in each group advancing to the last 16 on Sunday.
Burak Hashas from Turkey, winner of the "Next Generation" tournament last weekend, is certainly one of the top favourites and he lived up to this role in front of his home crowd. After two clear victories over Christos Falangas (Greece) and the Czech Milan Ettel, Hashas easily reached the final round.
The Italian Alessio D'Agata and the Austrian Nikolaus Kogelbauer also had no problems. Frenchman Maxime Pania, on the other hand, had a harder time than expected. Although he won his first game, he had considerable difficulties in his second match against Turkey's Dogukan Corbaci. At least he was able to save the 30:30 draw in the last run and thus win his group.
Tomorrow, Sunday, the new European Champion will be determined in the 1-cushion event, while the finals in
5-pins and 3-cushion U25 will take place on Monday.
The entire event can be followed in the paid livestream on tv.kozoom.com. Each of the 20 tables will be shown.
All results, schedules, daily press releases, photos and further information about the event can be found on the official media page.
You are welcome to use this press release for republication with a source attribution to "CEB | Billard1.net".
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