Ouschan Shocks Pool World at Predator World 14.1 Championship

Austria's Jasmin Ouschan is only two matches away from making a monumental feat in pool history, to be the first woman ever to win a men's world championship title. Ouschan came into the final 32 players as the player with more losses than wins. Then she was the worst seed at #16 today having to re-match with #1 seed Mika Immonen FIN. Immonen gave Ouschan a terrible beating a day earlier and looked prime to do it again. But this time Ouschan would do the shooting as she ran a 72 early on and never trailed the entire match. Immonen, clearly feeling the pressure, made several uncharacteristic mistakes. At one point down 122-26, Immonen came back within two racks. But too many unforced errors gave Ouschan the breathing room she needed to ice the Iceman 200-174.

This put Jasmin into the quarter finals, which is not an unheard of feat as she made it to the final eight just two years ago. But defending champ Oliver Ortmann seemed a likely winner in this paper mismatch. Again, wrong. Though Ouschan's game was not stellar, Ortmann made more errors than Ouschan and seemed visibly frustrated the entire match. Jasmin went on to win and once again make pool history with her 200-133 victory, doing her part to stop a German repeat win.

On the other side, USA had three hopes in John Schmidt, Danny Harriman, and newcomer dark horse 21 year old Mike Dechaine. Schmidt had to play Dechaine and started with a 103 ball run. Dechaine fought back and finally succumbed after a controversial three foul situation in which Dechaine lost 18 points. Schmidt had also three fouled, but Dechaine failed to warn Schmidt at his incoming turn. Schmidt would win 200-144.

In another rematch, Harriman took on Filipino monster Francisco Bustamante. "I'm looking forward to this one, I'm going to play better than when we first playerd," warned Harriman. Unfortunately, it was not written in the stars as Harriman failed to create any runs and Bustamante coasted to a 200-137 win. Bustmante then went onto defeat Holland's Huidji See 200-141.

In a hugely anticipated match, Schmidt and Feijen would play for rights to goto the semi finals. The match was a letdown in play as both players struggled to run more than two racks, but was exciting in its closeness. Schmidt lead the entire match and Feijen made a crucial miss at 182 points, where Schmidt had 185. Luckily Feijen left Schmidt no easy shot, and Schmidt went for a high pressured cross side bank. Schmidt fired the ball into the pocket and landed perfect for an easy break out shot next to the audiences delight and appluase. Then he missed. Schmidt in his frustration and disgust swiped the rest of the rack with his cue and gave up the match to Niels, who was visibly relieved to not have to run the last 18 balls. That eliminated the USA's hopes of an American reclaim of the World 14.1 title

Dutchman Nick Vandenberg, who was seeded #2 and still remains undefeated, gave Germany's favorite son Thorsten Hohmann all he could handle in a surprising 200-133 win for Nick. This would mark the second year in a row that Hohmann finishes 5th in the event. So top favorite Germany will have no soldier on the final day as well as host USA. Instead, a new country will be crowned World 14.1 Champion with either Austria, Holland, or the Philippines.

But most eyes will surely be on Jasmin Ouschan, who is not only playing for her country but also her whole gender as the first woman to ever make it to the semi-finals of a major men's pool championship. VIP and general admission tickets can be bought at the door for this final and historic day in straight pool.

The 2008 Predator World Straight Pool Championship is proudly sponsored by Dr.Michael Fedak of NYC, Joel Schapiro of NYC, The Predator Group, Diamond Billiard Products, Aramith Balls, and Simonis Cloth. For more information on player registration, sponsorship, or if you would like to submit a comment, please email worldstraightpoolchampionships@gmail.com or contact Dragon Promotions at 1-407-782-4978. For more details on the World 14.1 Championship go to www.dragonpromotions.com