Ankara September 17th 2023.
The World Championship for juniors is still firmly Korean territory, even after Burak Hashas won the title last year. With four titles for Haeng Jik Kim, one for Tae Kwan Kim and three for Myung Woo Cho, the Asian stronghold has dominated the junior event since 2007.
Some great quality matches were played in Ankara, leading up to the two semifinals and the final on Sunday. Defending champion Burak Hashas (Turkiye) was a big favorite over Amir Ibraimov (Germany), the latter being only fifteen years old. Amir played a strong and fearless match, overpowering the Turk 35-23 in 21/20 innings.
The second semifinal was even more spectacular. Spain’s Sainz-Pardo had made a strong impression and he kept up with Korea’s Myeong Gyu Oh for a while. But after Oh had closed out the match with a great run of 10, the scoreboard showed only 15 innings: 35-20 in 15/14. That’s a superb performance by any player, let alone an eighteen-year-old.
The final was – understandably – a festival of nerves and quite a few innings were used. The tension and excitement made up for some unnecessary misses, and from 32-32 anything could happen. Oh kept his cool, gave Ibraimov a few unmakeable starting positions and finished the job at 35-33 in 37/36 innings to be crowned world champion.
This junior event in Ankara provides plenty of grounds for optimism about the future of the sport. A wealth of talent was demonstrated, and it’s only a matter of time before we see these fresh faces in World Cups.
OFFICIAL RESULTS
https://www.umb-carom.org/PG344L1/Union-Mondiale-de-Billard.aspx
AfreecaTV
https://billiards.afreecatv.com/schedule
FIVE&SIX LIVE RESULTS
http://umb.cuesco.net/competition/info?idx=161
Ankara, September 17th 2023.
Today the semifinals and final of the 2023 Junior World Championship are being played in Ankara, the battle has been tough, the averages are very high and the games are generally decided in the last innings.
The level of the players was excellent, in the quarterfinals won the medal and podium Burak Hashas (TK), Amin Ibrainov (GER), Oh Myeong Gyu (KR) and Daniel Sainz Pardo (ESP) who scored the best average of the round.
Now you have to define the color that will correspond to each player.
Ankara, September 15th, 2023.
The UMB junior World Championship is about to kick off, in the lovely TBF venue in Ankara. Following the seniors and the women, the juniors get their shot at the world title from 15- 17 September. Burak Hashas is the defending champion from 2022, and the favorite for 2023. He made a big impression last year, and expectations are high. It will be interesting to see how Burak handles the pressure.
The field has 24 players, 13 from the CEB, 4 from the CPB, 3 from the ACBC, 2 from AMECC, one wildcard (Alptekin Canozkan from Turkey) plus the defending champion.
Group play, in 8 groups of 3, will be to 25 points with equalizing inning, the K.O. stage is 35 points without i.e. The clock is at 40 seconds, and UMB rules for Junior championships apply.
A few names you may want to keep your eye on: Denizcan Akkoca and Abdullah Kaya from Turkey, Dimitros Seleventas from Greece (last year’s runner-up), Lukas Mortensen from Denmark and Ye Sung Jeong from Korea. But you never know, especially with juniors. Talents sometimes emerge very quickly.
The tables for this championship are Zeki Bilardo, the cloth is ClassOne B2 Black and the balls are Dynaspheres.
All matches can be viewed on Afreeca TV.