Ine Helvik

Here we go again, It is that time of the year and I love it!

We are in Luxemburg, Hotel Parc Alvisse. They have installed 24 tables and there is livestream on all tables! The stream is by Kozoom, and you can find it here: http://www.kozoom.com/en/uspool (first 48 hours free, then 10 euro a month or 96 euro a year)

Livescore, draw, brackets etc etc is here: epconline.eu

10 days of playing pool. First 14-1, then 10-ball, next is 8-ball and in the end 9-ball. And this year we got the teams back aswell! I can not wait to begin!

The womens team is myself and Line Kjørsvik, the mens team consist of Kristoffer Mindrebøe, Mats Schjetne, Roger Rasmussen and Matey Ullah.  Coach Jörgen Sandman and sportsdirector  boss) Katrine Grotle is also here. Not too forget head mentor Monica Webb and the support team consisting of Bjørnar Yttersian and in a couple of days, Bjørn Mindrebøe.  This could not have been better!

Tomorrow I play my first straightpool match against Barbara Bolfelli (ITA) at 11:00. Line is third seed and has a wo first round and will play at 15:00.

I will keep you posted and hopefully the internett will allow me to post a few pictures too. I guess we are to many players using the net at the same time, this is sloooow.

Have a good night!

Ine:)

It looks like something is happening. First we had the Finnish 10-ball open in august and now the Italy open is scheduled for january. On top of this Ina Jentschura has worked on the Eurotour for women and it looks like we wil actually have a few stopes in 2012!! All this is good news. We desperatly need some more tournaments in Europe, those of us who does not play WPBA are falling behind big time. I hope this is the beginning of a new era for European female poolplayers!

I have started to arrange the trip to Italy and I hope we get a lot of players. In Finland we were only 25 and that is not enough. It is a start, but not enough. I think we all have a obligation to play the tournaments that is being arranged, if not they will stop having them.

Look forward to seeing you all in Bolzano Italy!!

Ine:)

I is good to be home. It always feels bad when you do not perform your best during a tournament. And it feels even worse after travelling half way around the world. That said, I have done very good the two previous years and I did try my best and made all the right preparations. I always try to see the positive side and I just have to take this as a learning process. And I had a really good time with my friends! I also made some new friends, I met Alison Chang among others, and that was all together a positive experience:)

The only thing I did after my last post was going to the banquet. This was a tiresome event, but important for all the sponsors and officials. They served us a 25 course meal and I think that says it all. The new world champion and all the Chinese players was there, and some of us western players. Alison got me one of the posters with the picture of Line and me and I collected autographs for once to hang on the wall in the poolhall.

Final top players:

World Champion: Bi Zhu Qing (CHN)

Runner up: Chen Siming (CHN) Now world no 1

Third place: Han YU (CHN) I beat her in  the first round last year:)

Fourth place: Fu Xiaofang (CHN) 2010 champion

Norwegian players: Line Kjørsvik, 17th place  Ine Helvik 49th place

Best western player: Monica Webb (US) and Brittany Bryant ( CAN) 9th place

We might go back to Shenyang next year, they want another two years of having the tournament. I would be happy to see it being held somewhere in the western world, I think that would change the odds a bit. We just have to wait and see what happens.

More pictures:

Banquet: 25 courses... way to much food!

Banquet: The entertainment.. Pink cowboys:)

Eating dumplings! We made some new chinese friends

Photo: Alison Chang. Me signing the board at the Red Carpet show

Photo: Alison Chang. The Press Conference

Photo: Alison Chang. Tamara Peeters and I on the opening banquet

Sorry for the lack of new posts. When you loose you get kind of fed up with everything, but I should write something earlier. I lost both my first day matches and that felt really bad after all that preparation. I had some really bad rolls and from that Thats life. 2009: 17th place 2010: 9th place 2011: 49th place…

I was joined by some pretty good players though. Allison Fisher was two and out. Kelly Fisher was out in the group stages. Caroline Roos was two and out. Lyndall Hulley was out in the group stages.  Marika Poikkijoki was  out n the group stages. Kynthia Orfanidis was out in the group stages….. The list is long.

The last 32 did not have that many western players left and after the first round in the single elimination we were destroyed…Line Kjørsvik, Tamara Peeters, Eylül Kibaroglü, Jasmin Ouschan, Monica Webb, Brittany Bryant and Kamila Khodjaeva all made it to the last 32. When the last round of the day was over we had only Monica Webb and Brittany Bryant left. After the last 16 round we had none. They both lost their matches 8-9. Last 8 had 7 Chinese and 1 Taiwan player. Last four is down to 4 Chinese and Fu Xiaofang, last years champion, just got beaten in the semis by a Chinese we have not heard of before..  The government funded poll in China is really producing a lot of good players.

Tomorrow I will go back home and I am really looking forward to that. First we have the the finals and the banquet tonight, I might post some pictures from that when I come back home.

Here is some pictures from the last couple of days and there is also a pictures to be found on wpa-pool.com. Allison Chang has done a great job! And thank you Allison for getting me the poster:) She has also taken a lot of photos from the tournament that I will post later.

Thanks for taking the time to read!

Have a good day

Ine:)

Jasmin Playing Fu Xiaofang on the tv table, last 32

Line playing in the last 32 against Bi Shu-Qing (fiinallist)

The draw for the last 32. Really formal:)

Marika on the tv table

This will be a short one, I am going to bed now. It has been a long day with practice at 0900 until 1100, press-conference at 1600 and then welcome party and draw. We were finished with the draw at 2100. You get tired of sitting there listening to chinese:)

We are divided into 8 groups with 2 seeded players in each group, double elimination. In my group from the top are: Lim Yun Mi (KOR), Indira Gowda (IND), Irirs Ranola (PHI), Pan Xiaoting (CHN), Lin Hsiao Chi (TPE), Ine Helvik (NOR), Marika Poikkijoki (FIN) and Chen Siming (CHN). I play Lin Hsiao Chi my first round at 1600.

Line Kjørsvik was seeded number 16 and she plays at 1000 against Mirjana Grujicic (VEN). Caroline Roos plays at 1000 against Yu Ram Cha and Lyndall Hulley at 1200 against Viktoria Nagorna (UKR)

The website is http://www.my147.com, but it is all in Chinese for th emoment. http://www.wpa-pool.com should also have information soon.

Have a good night, tournament updattes and pictures will come tomorrow:)

Ine:)