The 2019 European Pool Championships (also known as the 2019 Dynamic Billiards European Pool Championships) was a series of professional pool championships that took place at the Best Western Premier in Treviso, Italy. The event was played between 26 April and 8 May 2019 and was the 39th edition of the European Pool Championships that were first held in 1980. The championships saw events for men, women, under 23s and wheelchairs across five disciplines; straight pool, eight-ball, nine-ball, ten-ball and a team event.
Russian players won the most medals over the course of the series, with seven â winning three events. Russia's Kristina Tkach was the most successful female player, winning two events, losing only once in the final of the ten-ball event. Jasmin Ouschan won the nine-ball event, with a whitewash over Nataliya Seroshtan. Finland's Jouni Tähti was the most successful wheelchair player, winning two of the three handicapped events.
The European Pool Championships are an annual series of pool tournaments for players in Europe which were first held in 1980. The 2019 event featured matches played over 24 tables, and was held between 26 April and 8 May 2019 at the Best Western Premier in Treviso, Italy. The event also set as a prelude to the 2019 Treviso Open event for the Euro Tour held in the same location. The series features events for four disciplines of pool â straight, eight-ball, nine-ball, and ten-ball â as well as a team event. Every event has a separate tournament for both men and women, with a wheelchair event in eight, nine and ten-ball. An event for junior players who are under 23 was also played for eight and nine-ball events.
The tournaments were played as a double-elimination bracket, with players qualifying for a single elimination knockout. Each discipline was played to a different length, with matches in straight pool being played to 125 points in the men's event, and 75 in the women's competition. The eight and ten-ball events was played as a âÂÂtoâÂÂ8 , with the women's and wheelchair events as raceâÂÂtoâÂÂ6 racks. The nine-ball event was held as raceâÂÂtoâÂÂ9 racks for the men's and juniors events, with women's and wheelchairs as raceâÂÂtoâÂÂ7 racks. The series was sponsored by billiards and pool online store Dynamic Billiard.
The championships began 26 April 2019, with the straight pool event. Three Polish players reached the semi-finals of the men's event alongside Austria's Mario He. Karol Skowerski defeated He 125âÂÂ32 and Tomas Kaplan defeated Mariusz Skoneczny 125âÂÂ69 to complete an all-Polish final. Skowerski won his first individual European championship by defeating Skoneczny 125âÂÂ45, with a of 106. In the women's event, Russian player Kristina Tkach defeated Marharyta Fefilava in the semi-final, whilst the Netherlands' Tamara Peeters-Rademakers defeated Swiss player Claudia von Rorh. Rorh had previously defeated defending champion Jasmin Ouschan earlier in the tournament. Tkach won the final, defeating Peeters-Rademakers 75âÂÂ23 to win the gold medal.
The ten-ball event began on 31 April, and featured 101 participants in the men's, and 43 for the women's division. Mieszko Fortunski met Casper Matikainen in the final of the men's event. Matikainen won the first three racks, but lost eight of the next nine racks for Fortunski to win the event 8âÂÂ4. Having already won the straight pool event, Tkach reached the final of the ten-ball event. She met Christine Feldmann in the final, but lost her only match at the championships, with Feldmann winning 6âÂÂ3. Sweden's Henrik Larsson won the wheelchair event, defeating Latvian player Kaspars Turks 6âÂÂ1 in the final.
The eight-ball competition commenced on 2 May. Eklent Kaçi and Ralf Souquet meet in the final. Albanian Kaçi had never won a European championship title, with Souquet having won 22 previously. Kaçi took a 6âÂÂ1 lead, but Souquet won five of the next six to trail by one rack. Kaçi won rack 14 to capture his first championship 8âÂÂ6. Tkach contested the third final of the event in the women's eight-ball event, where she met Jasmin Ouschan. Ouschan won the first four racks of the final, before Tkach won three to trail 3âÂÂ4. On the verge of equalling the score, Tkach allowing Ouschan to take a two rack lead. With the to win the match, Ouschan missed her first shot, allowing Tkach to run the next two racks to tie the match at 5âÂÂ5, and win the match 6âÂÂ5. Finland's Jouni Tähti won the wheelchair event, defeating Roy Kimberley 5âÂÂ2 to win his 25th European medal. In the Under 23s, Pijus Labutis played Vitaliy Patsura in the final, winning 8âÂÂ4.
The team events began 5 May. The men's competition featured national teams consisting of three players, with a match of eight, nine and ten-ball in each tie. In the final, the Spanish team of Francisco DÃÂaz-Pizarro, Francisco Sánchez Ruiz and David Alcaide played the Austrian side of Albin Ouschan, Maximilian Lechner, and Mario He. DÃÂaz-Pizarro was the first player to win a match, winning his ten-ball match 8âÂÂ3 against Ouschan. Sanchez-Ruiz defeated He 9âÂÂ5 to win the tournament, that eventually finished as a 3âÂÂ0 victory for the Spanish team. The women's event was played with national teams consisting of two players. Ties consisted of one match of eight-ball and one of nine-ball. If a tie ended 1âÂÂ1, a match of doubles in ten-ball was used as a tie-breaker. The Portuguese team of Vania Franco and Sara Rocha reached the final without losing a match, where they met the German pair of Tina Vogelmann and Veronika Ivanovskaia. Franco defeated Vogelmann 6âÂÂ3 in eight-ball, whilst Rocha defeated Ivanovskaia 7âÂÂ2 in nine-ball to win the final 2âÂÂ0. In winning, the Portuguese team went undefeated.
The final event was the nine-ball championships, beginning on 6 May. Russian player Fedor Gorst played Joshua Filler in the final. Gorst took an early lead in the match, with Filler making a lot of . Gorst took an 8âÂÂ4 lead, before Filler won four straight racks to lead the match to . Gorst had the break for the deciding rack, and to win 9âÂÂ8. Jasmin Ouschan met Russian Nataliya Seroshtan in the final of the women's nine-ball event, where she won in a whitewash 7âÂÂ0. Having already won the eight-ball under 23 event, Pijus Labutis met Olivér Szolnoki in the final of the junior nine-ball event. Labutis won the final 9âÂÂ7. The final event of the championships was the wheelchair nine-ball event, where Jouni Tähti defeated Irishman Fred Dinsmore 7âÂÂ1.
On the overall medals table, Russia were top, having won three events and seven medals. Poland were second, with seven titles, but only two event victories. Finland placed third, with two event wins by Jouni Tähti. The full table is shown below: