JORGE TINOCO, the 44 year-old Portuguese was the recipient of the opening gold medal at the EPBF / Dynamic Billiards European Championships as he put in a series of solid performances to win the Straight Pool division, overcoming Germany’s Reiner Wirsbitzki 75-30 in the championship match.
Hailing from Lagos, on the Algarve coast in southern Portugal, Tinoco got the better of a strong field of 62 players, running undefeated through the tournament. With seven wins in total, the Portuguese was the best player there although he had some close matches en route to gold. The European Seniors Championships is for players of 40 years and over.
Commented Tinoco; “I have no words to describe how I’m feeling as this is my first time in the Seniors. This is a difficult competition in straight pool as it was my first time playing competitively. I practiced for two weeks and worked hard and I’ve won a gold medal which means that my work was well done.”
Entering his 11th European Seniors Championship, Wirsbitzki lost his opening game against Italy’s Riccardo Sini (75-28) and needed to battle his way through the losers’ bracket, playing ten matches in total.
Tinoco enjoyed a comfortable 75-6 win over Sweden’s Mahmut Mutto in the quarter-finals to ensure a medal and he went on to defeat the Norwegian Didrik Vatne 75-34 in the semi-finals. That ensured at least a silver and Wirsbitzki, who had earlier beaten countryman Steffen Gross 75-38 in the other semi-final, stood between him and the gold medal.
However, another comfortable performance from the Portuguese ensured his first ever European Championships gold medal. He can now look forward to taking that form to the remaining three divisions.
“I have no expectations for the other divisions; I just want to play good pool. I’m in the losers’ side in the 10 ball, so I have a big match tomorrow. It’s another day and another competition and there are a lot of good players so I’ll have to adapt as 10 ball is a totally different game to straight pool,” added Tinoco.
For Wirsbitzki, a loss in his opening match proved to be a telling factor; “I had a cold start yesterday and lost my first match and then I found my game a little better. I played five matches yesterday and then five matches today. Ten matches in two days are too much for me!"
“Against team mate Steffen Gross, it was a good match for me because I won and it was also the first that Steffen achieved a medal so I’m happy for him but I played very well and made 45 balls. At 9:00 in the evening, I didn’t feel so fit and relaxed but Jorge played well so congratulations to him.”
Play continues today in the men’s 10 ball and the ladies’ first event, also the 10 ball division.
Medals – Men
Gold: Jorge Tinoco (POR)
Silver: Reiner Wirsbitzki (GER)
Bronze: Didrik Vatne (NOR) & Steffen Gross (GER)
Matches can be viewed live at www.kozoom.com
Results, live scoring and draw are available at www.epbf.com