3-Cushion World Championship Juniors – A Star is Born: Burak Hashas is Junior World Champion

September, 24th 2022

The billiard world already knew he was a great talent. Now it is evident that he is a champion as well: 16-year-old Burak Hashas from Turkey is the new UMB 3-cushion Junior World Champion. In a spectacular but one-sided final, he beat Greece’s Dimitrios Seleventas to win the 2022 title: 35-10 in 19/18 innings.

An early run of eight put Hashas in the driving seat, and a few innings later he practically decided the match with a majestic run of twelve, the high run of the tournament. There was no coming back from a 20-point deficit for the unfortunate Greek because his opponent kept closing the door like a pro. Junior players are more known for ruthless attacking than for clever defending, but Hashas already has all the weapons, it seems. His numbers for the week: 1.241 general average, 1.842 best match, and 12 his high run.

In the semifinals, Seleventas produced an excellent match to get past South Korea’s Jun Sang Ko: 35-15 in 24/23 innings. Hashas, as he had done all through the week, used a few more innings but safely played to win against his countryman Denizcan Akkoca: 35-25 in 34. Given the development of the tournament and the quality of the semifinals, the 20-year-old Greek was even a slight favorite over his 16-year-old Turkish opponent. But Hashas had saved the best for last, and in the final he was unstoppable.

The organization in Heerhugowaard can look back on a marvelous week. It started off with an exhibition event featuring Dick Jaspers, Eddy Merckx, Semih Sayginer, and Torbjörn Blomdahl. That was followed by the World Championship for Ladies, and the Juniors were the third and last event.

All the matches were streamed by Five & Six on YouTube, and Dutch TV (Ziggo Sport) had a live broadcast.

For detailed results, click here:

September, 24th 2022

As was the case in the Ladies event, the middle day was long and full of excitement. The UMB 3-cushion Junior World Championship in Heerhugowaard now has only four players left: one from South Korea, one from Greece, and two from Turkey.

The last session of the quarterfinals had the most quality and the most tension. Turkish title favorite Burak Hashas was in a hard fight with the Vietnamese contender L. An Xuan: 35-26 in 23. On the other table, it looked like a victory in the making for Daniel Sainz-Pardo from Spain, but opponent Denizcan Akkoca ran 8-and-out (helped by an enormous fluke) to win 35-32 in 33/32.

The two other semifinalists: were Dimitrios Seleventas from Greece, who made a strong impression, and Jun Sang Ko from South Korea, who eliminated Austria’s Nikolaus Kogelbauer.

In the earlier round of 16, one of the pre-tournament favorites was eliminated: Maxime Panaia from France, who had a total off-day in his rematch against Seleventas. Lukas Mortensen, who had produced such a great run of 10 in the group stage, had no chance against Xuan.

Multiple world champion Marco Zanetti was among the YouTube viewers during the quarterfinals, and he was full of praise for all the talent on display. “You can see from the way they address the ball that their eyes are fresh and young”, said the 60-year-old.”

Tomorrow’s semifinals will be played at 11.00 and 13.00. The final is scheduled for 16.00.

11.00 Seleventas – Ko

13.00 Hashas – Akkoca

All matches can be watched on the Five & Six channel on YouTube.

All the detailed results can be found here:

https://www.umb-carom.org/PG344L2/Union-Mondiale-de-Billard.aspx

September 23rd, 2022

On the first day of the UMB 3-cushion World Championship for Juniors in Heerhugowaard, the Netherlands, the young guys have picked up where the Ladies left off. The tournament is being played in the same venue, on the same tables, and in the same format. From eight groups of three, sixteen players will advance to the K.O. stage.

The level of play on day 1 was satisfactory, with a good portion of the field over 1.000 average. The group that attracted most of the attention was group D, where something very rare happened: three matches all ended in a draw, and poor J.H. Son from South Korea finished third on average, so he left the event while being undefeated.

J.U. Park from South Korea had the day’s high average with 1.428, the high run was made by Mortensen (Denmark), with a 10.

The two winners from the groups:

A)  Kogelbauer (1.138 and Ibraimov (0.979)

B)  Akkoca (1.428) and An Xuan (0.677)

C)   Mortensen (1.250) and Ramirez (0.666)

D)  Panaia (1.250) and Seleventas (1.086)

E)   Ko (1.190) and Sainz-Pardo (1.080)

F)   Hashas (1.086) and Galvis (0.773)

G)  Phong Hoai (0.892) and Rosier (0.924)

H)  Park (1.428) and Dudink (0.580).

As usual, the matches can be viewed on the Five & Six channel on YouTube.

UMB.