Monday, March 26, 2007

Xiaoting Pan takes maiden win in Great Lakes Classic

China's Xiaoting Pan bounced back from last month's finals loss in winning the Great Lakes Classic for her first tour title.

Pan defeated Sweden's Helena Thörnfeldt 7-2 in a one-sided final. Kelly Fisher (England) and Ga-Young Kim (South Korea) finished joint third.

This was the second straight tour victory by an Asian this year. Ga-Young Kim (South Korea) beat Pan in the final of last month's Carolina Classic.

It's worth noting that neither of the two dominant players on tour made it to the semi-finals this time. Fittingly they were downed by the finalists. Karen Corr (Northern Ireland) lost 9-7 to Thörnfeldt in the first round of single elimination. Pan beat Allison Fisher (England) 9-4 in the quarter-finals.

With this win Pan moves from 8th to 4th in the WPBA Rankings. Thörnfeldt improved by 3 positions, from 13th to 10th. The list is still headed by Allison Fisher (England), followed by Karen Corr (Northern Ireland) and Kelly Fisher (England).

The event took place from March 21-25 at the Blue Chip Hotel and Casino, Michigan City, Indiana, USA. This was the second event of the WPBA season. Next up is San Diego Classic, April 18-22.

See also:

Related posts:

Sunday, March 25, 2007

Ouschan, Ortmann and Kimberley repeats in the European Championships

European Pool Championships 2007Three players had repeat performances in this year's European Pool Championships.

Germany's Oliver Ortmann successfully defended his 8-ball title. Jasmin Ouschan from Austria did the same in the women's 14.1 event and Roy Kimberley (GBR) repeated in the 9-ball wheelchair division.

Niels Feijen (Netherlands) won his fourth European 14.1 title and Thorsten Hohmann from Germany completed his selection with gold in the 9-ball event. He has previously won in 8-ball (2004) and 14.1 (2005).

Diana Stateczny (Germany) won the women's 8-ball title and Eylul Kibaroglu (Turkey) nailed gold in 9-ball.

In the wheelchair section Daniel Luton (GBR) won the 8-ball title, making it a clean sweet for Britain.

Ouschan totally dominated the 14.1 division. In the semi-finals she ran 75 and out. In the final she did even better. From -1 - 30 behind she ran 76 and out!

With his latest win Ortmann stands at 15 golds and 30 medals in total. Ouschan is the all-time leader in the women's division. In her short career she has already won 14 times and collected 18 medals in total.

The event was held Mar 15-24, 2007 at the Babylon Centre, Liberec, Czech Republic.

See also:

Related posts:

Friday, March 16, 2007

Alcano completes world double with 8-ball win

NB! This is the report from the 2007 World 8-ball Championship. There is also a post on the 2008 World 8-ball Championship.

World 8-ball Pool ChampionshipFilipino Ronnie Alcano won the World 8-ball Pool Championship in Fujairah.

In the final he defeated countryman Dennis Orcollo 11-8 to claim the $25,000 winner's cheque. Orcollo's runner-up place earned him $12,500. Alcano beat Niels Feijen (Netherlands) 10-4 in the semi-finals and Orcollo overcame fellow Filipino Joven Bustamante 10-5.

Defending champion Chia-Ching Wu (Taiwan) suffered a surprising defeat to Germany's Alexander Dremsizis in the first round.

By winning the title Alcano equalled Wu's feat of holding both the 9-ball and the 8-ball world titles at the same time.

Philippines and Europe dominated the tournament and covered all the places in the quarter-finals. USA was not represented in the event.

The tournament was played March 1st-8th at the Fujairah Bustan Centre, Fujairah, United Arab Emirates.

See also:

Related posts:

Monday, March 05, 2007

Sweden takes gold in world three cushion team event

2007 World Team Three Cushion ChampionshipFor the third time in a row and seventh overall Sweden won the World Team Three Cushion Championship.

The winning team consisted of Torbjörn Blomdahl and Michael Nilsson. In the final they won 2-0 over Denmark's duo, Tonny Carlsen and Brian Knudsen.

Germany and Netherlands tied for third place in an event with 24 teams from 22 countries.

The tournament was played 1-4 March at Festhalle in Viersen, Germany.


See also:

Saturday, March 03, 2007

One year and counting

Time flies! Billiard Pulse has reached the ripe old age of one year.

When launching the blog March 26th last year I had a general idea of how it should work. Being a fan of cue sports and an information addict I thought it would be fun to share whatever pieces of information I could find.

I've now settled into a more concrete concept. It can be summarized in three parts:
  1. Provide links to current and upcoming events
  2. Write short reports from major events with references to related material
  3. Maintain a list of billiard blogs and other billiard related sites
That's pretty much how it works today. Who knows how it will be in one year though.

Blogging has been a fun experience for me so far. Hopefully Billiard Pulse will be of some use to others as well.

Thank you for stopping by! I hope to see you again soon!

State of the blog

In total there's been 81 posts since the start.

They have been tagged 500 times with 103 different tags. 42 posts have been tagged with pool, 20 with snooker and 8 with carom.

The link list in the right menu now contains 139 links, of which 87 are blogs.

Related posts:

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Ga-Young Kim wins Carolina Women's Billiard Classic

World Champion Ga-Young Kim from South Korea won an all-Asian final to top the Carolina Women's Billiard Classic.

In the final she edged China's shooting star Xiaoting Pan 7-6. Allison Fisher (England) and Vivian Villareal (USA) finished joint third.

Kim earned $13,000 for first place. Pan's second place was worth $8,300.

This was her third victory on the WPBA Tour, following wins in the 2004 US Open and the 2005 Cuetec Cues National Championship.

With this win Kim drops(!) from 5th to 6th in the WPBA Rankings. Pan improved by five positions, from 13th to 8th. The list is still headed by Allison Fisher (England), followed by Karen Corr (Northern Ireland) and Kelly Fisher (England).

The event took place from February 21-25 at the Gateway Convention Center, Rocky Mount, North Carolina, USA. This was the first event of the WPBA season. Next up is Great Lakes Classic, March 21-25.

See also:

Rocky Mount Telegram:

Wojciech Trajdos is surprise winner in Czech Open

Poland's Wojciech Trajdos surprised everyone by winning the PoolComps.com Czech Open.

In the final he defeated Russia's Konstantin Stepanov 10-6 and won €6,500. Stepanov had been responsible for sending Trajdos to the one-loss side earlier in the event.

This was the first Euro Tour tournament with the new format, giving the top 32 in the rankings byes into the last 64. Top guns Thomas Engert (Germany) and Marlon Manolo (Philippines) tied for third place.

The tournament was played 22-25 February at the Hotel Babylon in Liberec, Czechia. It was the first Euro Tour event of the season. Next stop is the Italy Open (Apr 11-15).

See also: