30th July 2024 - Podčetrtek, Slovenia
POLAND & UKRAINE TAKE FINAL TEAM GOLDS
THE TEAM MATCHES were the final event of a superb DYNAMIC BILLARDS European Youth Championships and it was Poland who defeated Norway to take the Under 19 gold medals while Ukraine won the Under 17 match where they defeated the Poles. The Polish success lifted them to second in the overall medal table just behind the No.1 medallists, the Netherlands.
With Poland contesting both finals, they did have the opportunity to vault to the top of the medal table. They shared the early spoils in the Under 19 final with their Ukrainian opponents before Dominik Homza started to move away from Mykola Moroz in the 10-ball match as he led 4-2 in the race to 7.
As Homza was looking impressive, Konstantyn Ivanov and Ivan Rudenko both held slender one-rack leads for Ukraine to put the overall match on a knife-edge. Homza took the first point of the tie as he defeated Moroz 7-3 but Ukraine were in the dominant position as they led in the remaining two matches
The 8-ball match between Konstantyn Ivanov and Jakub Kraupe sat at 5-3 in favour of the Ukrainian and then Ivanov reached the hill at 6-3 but got nothing from his break shot. Kraupe really had it all to do but a missed 8 ball in the tenth game, really hurt his chances. Meanwhile, in the 9-ball match, Rudenko reached the hill first but Pietrzyk was snapping at his heels as the score stood at 7-6.
Rudenko took the next rack to win and, moments later, it was left to Ivanov to seal the victory and he let out a wild scream of joy as Ukraine took the golds.
Ivan Rudenko said, “It feels amazing. The whole week we’ve been playing here and we got the gold at the very end so it’s a very special feeling. Poland are very strong and it was a very close match but, in the end, we are the winners but a big shout out for them.”
Moroz added, “It was crazy, I felt so bad that I lost my match but I was hoping for my team-mates and I’m so happy for this victory for Ukraine!”
Finally, team-leader Viktoria Nagorna concluded, “My guys are the best of the best, they practiced so hard and they deserved this gold medal. I’m so proud of them!”
Gold: Ukraine - Konstantyn Ivanov, Ivan Rudenko, Mykola Moroz
Silver: Poland - Jakub Kraupe, Jacek Pietrzyk, Dominik Homza
Bronze: Germany - Laurenz Geitz, Felix Vogel, Paul Gorgon, Felix Wellers
Bronze: Finland - Juho Teittinen, Sasu Hietamies, Riku Romppanen
The Under 17 title match was between Poland and Norway and similarly to the senior final, it was the best of three with matches in 8-ball, 9-ball and 10-ball. The Poles led in all three games in the earlier stages with Michal Wiech looking a heavy favourite in the 9-ball with a 4-0 lead over Joakim Langkas.
That became 5-1 whilst Dominik Regieli opened up a 4-2 lead over Robin-Hauge Pettersen to leave the Poles in pole position. Wiech was the first man over the line with a solid 7-2 win over Langkas but the other two matches were both separated by a single rack to the leave things very much in the open.
Regieli, though, won the eighth rack to put himself on the hill and within a single rack of the gold medal. However, Pettersen thwarted him but Norway were still in a precarious position. That was confirmed in the next rack when Pettersen made nothing off the break and Regieli cleared the stripes and the 8 ball for a clutch of Polish gold medals.
Poland, who have won three of the last five Under 17 gold medals were naturally thrilled and excited with their achievement.
Michal Wiech spoke on behalf of his team, “We are proud of ourselves and we played a great final. This is five of the best under 17 players in Poland and we have a lot more players coming through so it’s a promising future for Poland.”
Gold: Poland - Dominik Regieli, Michal Wiech, Jakub Chrobot, Wojciech Glab, Jakub Hajduk
Silver: Norway - Robin-Hauge Pettersen, Joakim Langkas, Benjamin-Herland Aralden
Bronze: Germany - Martin Roser, Alessio Hybler, Valentin Schmitz, Fabrizio Ingrasci
Bronze: Sweden - Walter Laikre, Jonah Kramer, Gabriel Aspholm, Sebastian Simonsson Falldin
All results from the championships can be found on https://www.epbf.com/tournaments/european-championships/
ENDS