Polish 9-Ball champion – Szymon Kural.
The international Dynamic Billiard Best of the East – Polish 9-Ball tournament, included in the ranking of the Eastern European Cup, ended with the success of Polish players. The first eight places were taken by the billiard players of the Polish Billiard Association. The best foreigner was Petr Urban, who finished the tournament in 9th place. The winner was a player from the TCF Hub Kraków club, Szymon Kural. In an interesting final he defeated Radosław Babica from the Rokietnica Billiard Academy 7:5.
Bartosz Rozwadowski from Nosan Kielce and Daniel Macioł Dekada Sosnowiec also stood on the podium.
Polish 9-Ball was part of the 8th International Billiards Festival – Kielce 2023. 115 players from Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine, the USA, Finland and Albania entered the competition. The tournament opening ceremony was attended by: EEBC president Marcin Krzemiński, vice presidents: Jaroslav Horenovsky and Samuel Koniar, president of the Albanian Billiards Federation Edmond Loku, vice president of PZBil Arkadiusz Sząszor and general secretary of PZBil Izabela Gajek. On the first day, matches were played in 29 groups. Due to the large number of participants, sports competitions continued until midnight
Although the two favorites: world champion W. Szewczyk and vice-champion W. Zieliński suffered one defeat each, but they advanced to the knockout stage. Among the 58 players there were 51 Poles and 7 foreigners.
In the first round of the knockout game the following players were eliminated: J. Xhafa (ALB), D. Zalman and M. Kapitancik (CZE) and M. Mrva (SK) and T. Muhonen (FIN). M. Śniegocki and W. Szewczyk also said goodbye to the tournament. D. Macioł played good matches, eliminating two titled rivals: Mieszko Fortuński (European Champion) 7:0 and W. Zieliński 7:2. Again, the young guard showed up: D. Jastrząb and S. Kural. Dominik defeated: D. Zalman 5:1, N. Żelasko 7:4, T. Kapłan 7:5 and in the quarterfinals he lost 6:7 to Radosław Babica. Szymon eliminated: W. Forrtuński 5:2, J. Wierzchowski 7:1, W. Papiż 7:4, M. Muklewicz 7:2, and in the semi-final B. Rozwadowski 7:5. Rozwadowski can be satisfied with his start. His advance to the semi-finals and defeat of, amongst others, Szewczyk, Zając and Skowerski are a good reason to be proud.
The semi-finals of Kural-Macioł and Babica-Rozwadowski forced the winners to lose a large portion of energy. The opponents would not let themselves be easily beaten. In the final, Babica took the lead 2-0 and then 3-1. Then Kural started to make up for the losses and led to the score 5:4. The end of the match also belonged to the billiard player from Krakow.
The festival in Kielce is not only a place of sports competition, but also a place of friendly contacts, exchange of experience and getting to know the region. The support of the Polish Tourist Organization resulted in a visit to one of the Świętokrzyskie wineries, visits to the castle in Chęciny, the Holy Cross Basilica or the cathedral and the National Museum in Kielce.
Help in organizing the tournaments also came from: the City of Kielce, Dynamic from Germany, Iwan Simonis S.A. and Saluc S.A. (Aramith) from Belgium, Świętokrzyskie Marshal’s Office, Cuetec from the USA, Kamui from Japan and Dominus from Finland. The team of judges was led by Alexandru Balas from Romania, and the director of the Festival was Marcin Krzemiński. Thanks are also due to TVSports, PZBil and the Świętokrzyskie Billiards Association.
Results:
1. S. Kural
2. R. Babica
3. D. Macioł i B. Rozwadowski,
5-8. K. Skowerski, M. Muklewicz, D. Hryb, D. Jastrząb,
9-16. T. Kapłan, D. Urban, C. Antczak, W. Papiż, W. Zieliński, M. Skoneczny, P. Błachowski , T. Sadlik.
More: www.ebc-billiard.com