Jakub Koniar, a silver-medalist at the recent European Championships in Antalya, Turkey, has apologised after controversially attempting to call multiple fouls in his semi-final win.
Slovakian number one Koniar was ultimately beaten in the 10-ball final by Poland’s Daniel Maciol, although his win over Serbia’s Aleksa Pecelj in the semi-finals involved numerous disputes and controversy.
Pecelj was trailing 6-3 and moving the cue ball with ball-in-hand, and Koniar accused the former US Open semi-finalist of moving the ball with the tip of his cue, which is allowed under WPA rules as long as there isn’t a forward motion.
Another dispute unfolded a couple of racks later as Pecelj potted the 10 ball. The referee called foul after the Serbian lifted the balls from the pocket and touched the cloth, whilst the cue ball was still moving.
Afterwards, Koniar was again infuriated by his opponent picking the balls out of the pocket, and despite the referee being satisfied that the balls did not touch the cloth, the Slovakian called over a more senior official.
Koniar received ball-in-hand on the 10 ball in two of the final three racks in questionable fashion to reach the final, only to be whitewashed 8-0 by Maciol in Wednesday’s final.
“I’ve played good this week,” Koniar told the Predator Pro Billiard Series. “I came back after a few years not playing pool or playing very little, so I’m glad that I can still play good. A lot of the matches I played really good.
“There was some problems in the semi-finals because of a lack of my knowledge about the rules with the tip and the cue ball.
“For my behaviour, I just want to apologise, because in my case I just saw that it was a foul and wanted to ask a referee if he could watch again and see if it was a foul or not.
“I think both players and the referee made mistakes in that semi-final, and I think in the semi-finals of the European Championships this problem with referees should not happen in my opinion.”
Under Rule 1.11 in the WPA rules, players may contest a refereeing decision should they feel an error of judgement has occurred, while the rules also state that no ball on the table may be touched whilst any ball is still in motion.
Koniar’s antics were not received well, and former world 10-ball champion Wojciech Szewczyk refused to shake his hand in their match at the European 8-Ball Championship, a tournament Koniar was a silver-medalist in 2014.
“I am thinking about that all the time because I was leading 7-3 and in the whole match I missed one ball and had two bad breaks and lost 8-7,” the Slovakian added.
“I’m glad that I came back and won the next medal for Slovakia. For most pro players it’s just another match, but pool in Slovakia is not too big and when we win a medal it’s emotional.”
