8-Ball titles for Sirotina, Tähti and van den Berg
The 8-Ball individuals at the Dynamic Billard European Championships in Kyrenia, North Cyprus, have been decided. The newly crowned Champions are Darya Sirotina (RUS), Jouni Tähti (FIN) and Nick van den Berg (NED).
„The toughest match of the day was the quarter-final encounter with Jasmin Ouschan“, stated a happy Sirotina after the final match. She had just defeated Kamila Khodjaeva (BEL) with 6:5. The match was filled with ups and down with Sirotina getting 5:3 advantage over Khodjaeva. But the Belgian knew how to stay in the match and pulled back two racks from Sirotina to tie the match at hill-hill. There, Sirotina proved her nerves and ran out the rack and the match to win her first European Champion title in the women’s division.
Jouni Tähti has been there quite some time already. He had the final match with his „favorite opponent“, Henrik Larsson (SWE). „It is always special when Finish people meet Swedes in sports events“, says Tähti after the final. He remained the upper hand over Larsson and took the title with a clear 5:3 victory.
In the men’s division, Nick van den Berg was kind of expected to be in the final match. Though there were many good players in the field, he was not necessarily a complete surprise. His opponent was the opposite. Jakub Koniar (SVK) was relatively unknown before today; but from now on his name will be on the list of the other players in Europe. With victories over Niels Feijen, Chris Melling and others, Koniar well deserved his sot in the final match with van den Berg. And it was Koniar to have a brilliant start into the match. He was leading big time with 6:1 and 7:3 and things looked like the EPBF would have an underdog European Champion. But never forget Nick van den Berg. Koniar’s break left him after 10 racks and van den Berg pulled back rack after rack from Koniar who got more and more nervous. Van den Berg made the impossible possible and went hill-hill with Koniar. There, he had the break shot and demonstrated pool billiard in its perfection. he ran out the rack and took the title in men’s 8-Ball and left Koniar a bit disappointed.
Play will commence tomorrow morning 09:00 local time with the 9-Ball competition. All results and more info can be found on www.epconline.eu. LIVEStream can be viewed at www.kozoom.com.
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.epconline.eu or contact our press office press@epbf.com.
