Lovende woorden voor zilveren Yannick Pongers

Prachtige start voor TeamNL op EK Pool in Tampere in het straightpool; Pongers maakt het na geweldige start in de finale net niet af

03 juni 2023

TAMPERE, FINLAND - De ongekende vooruitgang van Yannick Pongers toont zich niet alleen nationaal, maar ook steeds meer internationaal. In zijn inmiddels bekende wervelwind-achtige stijl, leek Yannick in het openingsevent van het EK Pool, het straightpool, direct op weg naar goud. Zoals werd opgemerkt in de chat bij de livestream: hij lijkt gewoon niet te kunnen missen!

Uiteindelijk gebeurde dit toch, en moest Yannick het goud laten aan de extatische Fin Kim Laaksonen.

De complimenten van de EPBF voor de jongste van de Dutch Poolbrothers logen er niet om:

18 year-old Yannick Pongers, who is one of the hottest young prospects in European pool and won two golds and a silver at last year’s European Junior Championships. In fact, the Dutchman opened up a 91 point lead in the race to 125 match to leave his opponent with everything to do when he finally got to the table.

The 31 year-old Finn though, scratched when on 6 points to hand the table back and seemingly leave himself in a deep hole. Pongers, however only lasted three balls before getting into a spot which forced a miss.

Laaksonen really needed a significant visit this time to get back into the match and he got his head down and moved his score onto 85 before a miss gave Pongers the opportunity to close the match out. He completed the rack to take him to 108 but left a nasty cut on the 6 ball into a blind pocket to start the next rack. He missed it to allow Laaksonen back to the table trailing 85-108.

It was an opportunity for the Finn but the bulk of the balls were clustered around the spot but he methodically picked them off to end the rack just nine points behind Pongers. He completed the next rack to give himself a 5 point lead and leave the finishing line 12 points away. He made no mistakes and was clearly thrilled to have won his first European Championship gold medal in his home country.

Eveneens uit het EPBF-verslag:
After the match, a clearly ecstatic Laaksonen said, “I mean it’s incredible. I’ve never had this feeling before. I’d won a couple of bronze medals and one silver so yeah, it feels amazing. I was thinking, I can’t do anything here as Yannick ran 91 balls in about 15 minutes but then he gave me one chance and I ran a 79. I’m so shocked!

“I’ve never been so nervous in my life for those last few balls. My hands were shaking, my legs were shaking but it was fun though. What else can you hope, winning in your home country – it’s perfect!”

Medals – Men

Gold: Kim Laaksonen (FIN)
Silver: Yannick Pongers (NED)
Bronze: Joao Grilo (POR), Daniel Maciol (POL)

Al met al was het een prachtige start voor TeamNL op EK Pool in Tampere. Nu is het tijd voor het tweede event, het 10-ball.

Onderstaand wat sfeerfoto’s van de eerste dagen, en een overzicht van alle info over dit EK.