SZYMON KURAL (POLAND) and Karl Gnadeberg (Estonia) claimed gold medals in the Under 19 and Under 17 divisions respectively at the 2022 Predator World Junior Championships in San Juan, Puerto Rico on Monday night. All in all, the European squad won two golds, one silver and four bronze medals from the total of 12 medals available; a brilliant collective achievement and a wonderful testimony to the strength of youth pool in Europe. 

Commented EPBF Team Leader, Tommi Lamminaho, “It was a wonderful effort from all of our players this week. I know that we come to the World Juniors with high expectations but the players still have to perform and I’m delighted that they were able to deliver the goods in such fine style. Youth pool in Europe is a well-organised operation across all our member countries and it was a pleasure to be in the company of such a group of dedicated and hard-working athletes this week.” 

In the Under 19’s, the European squad occupied three of the four semi-final spots and it was Kural who prevailed in a strong field to become World Champion. The was 20-year-old defeated Germany’s Yuma Dörner 11-6 in the final, having defeated Saudi’s Khalid Alghamdi, arguably the pre-tournament favourite by 11-4 in the quarter-final and then came out top in a tough semi-final battle against Dennis Laszkowski (Germany), prevailing 11-9. 

Dörner made his way to the final, courtesy of two thumping wins. Firstly, he thrashed American hope Joey Tate by 11-4in the quarter-finals and then bettered that with an 11-1 thumping of Sun Yi Hsuan in the semi. 

It was Szymon Kural, though, who took the gold as he kept on top of Dörner throughout the match, to more than make up for his final defeat in the same event last year. 

Commented Kural, “Firstly I don’t believe it actually! That was a very tough tournament and I’m very happy to have won that. I don’t know what to say because I’m so excited especially because I lost the previous year in the final and I didn’t really want to lose this time. I played very well and didn’t expect to play that well but I focused on every match. 

“My family will be really happy and I am looking forward to going back home and celebrating with my friends and family. I want to get better and better and play tournaments around the world.” 

In the Under 17s, Karl Gnadeberg, the 16-year-old from Tallin, got the better of Hong Kong’s Li Lang Yi in the title match running out a 9-5 winner on the main stage. Karl had made his way to the final with a hill-hill victory over Felix Vogel and then got the better of Serbia’s Lazar Kostic, 9-6 in the semi. Kostic collected a bronze for his terrific efforts this week, as did Finland’s Jori Narvola who also went out at the semi-final stage. 

Gnadeberg was naturally thrilled with his success; “It feels amazing, ecstatic! I didn’t believe it but now it’s come true. I thought there were some good players and I wasn’t playing my best at the start but at the end it all came together. In the final the start was a little bit slow and we both made some misses but in the middle of the game I started to pot more and I got the advantage at 7-5 and at the end he missed the 9-ball and I made an incredible jump and I won.” 

In fact, Gnadeberg had saved his best until the very end of the final when he jumped the 8 to make the 6 and draw the cue ball back down for inch-perfect position on the 7. 

“Kick wasn’t available, so I decided to bring the jump cue,” said the Estonian. “The only way I could make it was to bring a draw and I never actually did it before, but it came out perfectly and I was amazed.” 

In the Girls World Junior Championship, it was not to be a gold medal repeat for Austria’s Lena Primus who came up short in her semi-final match, going down 9-6 to Hyerim Kim (South Korea), her opponent in last year’s final. Despite the obvious disappointment, Primus will be going home with another medal, this time a bronze. 

The final was contested by Kim and Hong Xin Yu (Hong Kong) and it was Hong who took the gold medal, running out a comfortable 9 – 4 winner, handing Kim her second successive silver medal. 

Medals 

Under 19s 

Gold – Szymon Kural (Poland) 

Silver – Yuma Dörner (Germany) 

Bronze – Dennis Laszkowski (Germany) 

Under 17s 

Gold – Karl Gnadeberg (Estonia) 

Bronze – Lazar Kostic (Serbia) 

Bronze – Jori Narvola (Finland) 

Girls 

Bronze – Lena Primus (Austria) 

The WPA Predator World Junior Championships are part of a series of top-level tournaments being staged at the Puerto Rico Convention Center in San Juan through November, culminating in the Predator WPA World 8-Ball Championships. 

Further event details including live scoring can be found at the tournament’s Official Site: https://probilliardseries.com/ 

Once underway, matches can be viewed at www.kozoom.com