The current 3-cushion world champion Dick Jaspers is now the 2019 European champion, cementing his well-deserved number one ranking. In the continental championships held in Brandenburg, Germany the Dutchman secured the title with a victory over the reigning 2018 champion Marco Zanetti of Italy.
Facing reigning 2018 European champion Marco Zanetti of Italy in the final match, Dutchman Dick Jaspers proved why he holds the title of current world champion and world number one in the UMB rankings. A fast start by Jaspers in the first half was followed by a 16-point run by Zanetti surging ahead to get back in the game
. Then it was Jaspers who showed his class at the finish by calmly running 8 and 2 in his last two innings to break a 30-30 tie taking the match and the title. Jaspers - champion of Europe and the world - is truly number 1!
The 2019 3-cushion championship started with 64 players. 16 were seeded and 16 advanced from the preliminaries for a total of 32 in the main tournament. The best matches in the pre-rounds were played by Kostas Papakonstantinou and Turgay Orak (30 in 13 innings). Peter Ceulemans shone in the last 32 with a victory over Javier Palazón (40-13 in 13). The other highlights: Semih Sayginer was at his top level against Filippos Kasidokostas in the last eight: 40-15 in 14 with a run of 19. Murat Naci Coklu beat Tonny Carlsen in that round 40-25 in 13, Marco Zanetti defeated Eddy Merckx in the quarterfinals 40-19, the Dutchman Glenn Hofman won both against Frédéric Caudron and Dani Sánchez, but stumbled in the quarterfinals over Ruben Legazpi.
The best match came from Dick Jaspers: 40-8 in the semi-final against Ruben Legazpi. Semih Sayginer (left) produced the best run against Kasidokostas: 19.
Also in the multi-discipline event the Belgian team of Frederic Caudron and Eddie Merckx (left) won the team championship and for the seventh year in a row Therese Klompenhouwer (below) won the women's championship.
Final order of finish in the European Championship for the men's individual 3-cushion (match points - average - high run):
Dick Jaspers was already number one in the world and held the title of world champion before the 2019 European Championship. Now he holds this coveted title for the sixth time in his career and ends an eight year wait since his last in this event in 2011. Congratulations to Dick Jaspers - Number 1!
Thanks to the media-site of the European Championships, UMB and Kozoom for material and pictures used in this report.