- July 2, 2004

Press Release

Berlin, July 2, 2004

Triumph for UK Carrom players in Euro Cup in Switzerland

The british players dominated in the 8th Carrom Euro Cup at Flumserberg, Switzerland, which ended on 27th June.

Karnal Abdin of U.K. won the Singles European Champion title, beating 10 times Swiss Champion Carlito Bollin. who had won the title in 2003 at Luton, Uk, It was a one sided final with 25:0 and 25:01 points for Karnal Abdin.

Another UK player Mohammad Sunhar Ali came on third place. While Peter Boecker of Germany became 4th.

Also the Teams Championship was won by the UK . It was the only unbeaten team. The Runner up is Germany.

While Switzerland came on third place, leaving behind Italy, France, Holland, Belgium. Players from Spain took part only in Singles and Doubles.

The Doubles Title went however to German pair Heiko Wurst and Joerg Kijanski. While the UK pairs A.Hafiz/A.Mumith and Abdus Khan/M.A.Wahid came on second and third places.

The EURO CUP matches, under the auspices of the European Carrom Confederation were conducted in a very fair and friendly atmosphere in the beautiful mountain surroundings of Flumserberg, Switzerland.

Next Euro Cup in Italy

The occasion was also used to hold the Annual General meeting of the European Carrom Confederation, which decided to allot the next EURO CUP Tournament to Italy. It will be held in summer 2005.

Also an International Umpires Examination for Europeans was conducted with written, oral and practical tests.

Apart from the matches the host federation SCA provided lots of recreation and entertainments during the tournament.

With 110 competitors from 8 European countries, in Singles Event, the 8th Euro Cup, 25th to 27th June 2004 became another big landmark for the development of the most interesting Asian indoor game, Carrom, in Europe, which will have its effect beyond the continent.

The tournament had three events: Singles, Doubles and Team Event. Mode of the matches was Swiss System, which has been tested successfully in all European Carrom competitions.

An interesting peculiarity of the European Cup tournaments was that there were no seperate teams of men and women. All events were conducted on mixed basis.

Rise in standard of the game

In Singles Event many times Swiss Champion Carlito Bollin failed to defend his European Title, which he won in 2003 in Luton, U.K..

While the U.K. team defended successfully the Teams Title, which it had snatched from the Germans last year. The Germans had entered this year a strong team to regain the European title, which they held for 6 years until 2003, when they lsot it to U.K.

But the standard of the game has also increased remarkably in Italy, France and Holland which reflected in the matches right from the beginning. Some young players from France and Italy gave very tough fights to the experienced players of Germany, UK and Switzerland.

Apart from the tough competitions the players from different countries had the opportunity to meet each other, develop friendship and understanding and exchange experiences and knowledge.

Among the prominent guests the tournament was attended by the President of the International Carrom Federation Mr. Krishan Sharma ACA DL, who was also leading the British team.

Speaking at the closing session the President of the European Carrom Confederation, Arif Naqvi, thanked Swiss Carrom Association for the hospitality and appreciated the fair and friendly atmosphere of the tournament, pointing out to the fact that this time highest number of players and countries have take part in Euro Cup and the standard of the game has also made tremendous improvement.

8th Euro Cup 2004 Final Ranking List

Arif Naqvi, Chairman Media Commission of International Carrom Federation & President European Carrom Confederation

Rudolf-Seiffert-Str. 60

10369 Berlin, Germany

e-mail: naqviarif@yahoo.com

website: www.international-carrom-fed-media-commission.org