Kosovar wins Balkan billiards race in Serbia

He took first place among the 91 contestants from all Balkan countries.

Markaj came out first after winning eight victories, but suffered no losses. In the final, he defeated Bosniak Sanjin Pehlivanovovic, who in 2017 was world champion in the U-17 age group in discipline “9-ball”.
The participation of the seven-member Kosovo team prompted this organisation to be held without flags. On the “Cetorial website” where the state and international contests are located, all flags have been removed.

Federation of Billardos of Kosovo Chairman Veton Dula has told Koha.net that this federation is part of this tournament because of the political problem with Serbia.

He has said that organisers from Bosnia and Serbia have initially welcomed competitors from Kosovo, but then have changed the approach due to political problems on Serbia's part. Kosovo racers had been competing independently, without the logo of the Federation of Kosovo.

“The mode of organising competitions at the Balkan level began last year as pilot-projects by organisers Senad Pehlivanovovic from Bosnia and Martin Martinovic from Serbia who are friendly with this sport. At my first contact last year, these two have welcomed me, but a few weeks later they had political problems on Serbia's part. So this year our players took the liberty of going to Cacak but competing selfishly where it was also seen that after casting lots, it was directly intervened to remove all state flags. So it's still getting political in sports. Fortunately, our best player, Labintot Markaj, defeated them and won first place in this” contest, Dula told Koha.net.

The Balkan Pole Tour” is a tour held in all Balkan countries except Kosovo. The next race takes place in Sarajevo on 3 November and 4 November.