Player: Albin Ouschan
Event: 2019 World Cup of Pool
Location: Leicester, U.K.
Date: June 30, 2019



It 's a tradition in sports to rally around the idea that “nobody believed in us!” despite how many people believed in them. Little slights, insults and long odds are great for motivation. When it comes to the 2019 World Cup of Pool, Team Austria, featuring Albin Ouschan and Mario He, had a decent case for being overlooked. The Austrian duo landed in Leicester, England, as the sixth-seeded team out of 32, which seems a notch or two low considering the two won the 2017 title and finished runners-up in 2018.

Ouschan and He were rolling in their quarterfinal match against Greece, up 5-1 in the race-to-9, when Ouschan came to the table facing the layout shown in the diagram to the right. Facing a long, nearly straight angle on the 1, he had few options for position on the 2, which was in the lower right corner, nearly tied up with the 7. But Ouschan made his own path while also freeing the 2 to keep him in good shape.

With a firm stroke and top right English, the world champ bent the cue ball 's path forward after contacting the 1. The object ball drilled the center of the top left pocket, while the cue ball hit the top right long rail twice. The side spin helped pull the cue ball back after contact with the head rail. The cue ball then clipped the right side of the 2, coming to a stop almost immediately while the 2 rolled into perfect shape for He.

The Austrian duo continued pounding away at the Greeks, 9-2, then dispatched Spain, 9-3, and the Philippines, 11-3, to take their second title in three years. With the pandemic erasing the 2020 World Cup, the Austrians are still reigning champs, who could expect a higher seed in this year 's competition.


(Video clip provided by Accu-Stats Video Productions.)

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