From May 9 to 11, 300 players are participating in the sjoelbak world championship, otherwise known as Dutch billiards. The event takes place at the Bischheim sports park (Bas-Rhin), with more than 18 nationalities gathered.
Score the most points by sliding small pucks into racks on a wooden table… This is what we call sjoelbak, or more commonly Dutch billiards. It is around this friendly sport that more than 300 people will compete, during the world championship organized from May 9 to 11, 2024 at the Bischheim sports park (Bas-Rhin).
“It’s a game that has existed for 400 years, widely played in the Nordic countries, particularly Holland where there are the most players.”explain Gilles Weltzheimer, one of the organizers of the competition. “It’s been 15 years since a Dutch woman introduced friends to this game In the region. Hes then created the Friends of Sjoelbak club. Now Alsace counts uten sections and we hope to develop others.“
“The aim of the game is to enter the pucks into the slots. We have 30 of them and we launch them one after the other. We collect the pucks that don’t fit. We have three throws to get the best score”, detailed Gilles Weltzheimer. We call it billiards, because the pucks are round, and we can play with the strips and with geometric effects, like real billiards..”
Eighteen nationalities are represented during this popular sporting world championship. Some competitors come from South Korea, Suriname and the United States. “The advantage of this sport is that it is multigenerational: children, parents, grandparents can play it.“, rejoices the organizer, who also competes.
The goal of the game: score the most points by sliding small pucks into racks.
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© C. Vanier / FTV
Between 300 and 400 spectators are expected at the sports park. The individual and team finals are scheduled to be played this Saturday. “We hope place French people in the top 20 and, for the first time, the French team on the podium“, dream Gilles Weltzheimer. In total, nearly 100 French people are in the running.
