Welcome to the New Blog about Billiards

By Ivan Novkovic

This is the blog about billiards which will not include information from journalists reporting on tournaments and other events. I'll try to walk you through all the major events and personalities from an interesting perspective that you cannot find on regular news web pages. 

Who am I?

I was born in Paracin, Srebia, on February 16, 1978. I was born with Spina Bifida and I have been a wheelchair user ever since. Since 1984, I have lived in the City of Nis located in southeastern Serbia. My first encounter with billiards was in 1991 trough a child game when this sport and I became inseparable.

I became a professional billiard player in 2002. This was a time when, through my initiative and my colleagues’ support, the Serbian Wheelchair Billiards League - maintained by the Billiards Federation of Serbia - was created. In 2010, I was the Serbian wheelchair billiards champion in 8 international & 9 ball. I participated in several European Championships – Liberec, Czech Republic in 2007, Willingen, Germany in 2008, and Brandenbourg, Germany in 2011. Furthermore, since 2010 I have participated in men’s championships of the Nis District, which is a step before one qualifies to the National Championship of Serbia.

The City of Nis did not have a professional billiard club before 2009. That year, on my and my teammates’ initiative the Billiard Club Balabushka was established. I have become a club president then and am still holding this position. Only a year after its formation the BC Balabushka was participating in almost all competitions held by the Billiard Federation of Serbia. These competitions’ results will be discussed in other sections of this blog.

My colleagues and I are very proud about the establishment of the BC Balabushka which initiated three new billiard clubs in our district. This has affected a constant development of this sport in our area and we hope that these efforts will continue resulting in a number of new accomplishments.

Special thanks to all that contributed to the growth of and all the achievements in this sport in our area:

Societies:

Society of people with paraplegia of Nisava District

Sport society of people with paraplegia "NAIS" - City of Nis

"Centre living upright" - Novi Sad 

Biiliard caffe clubs:

Atlantis - City of Nis

Leonhart - City of Nis

Medison - City of Novi Sad

Cue ball - Belgrade

My friends and colleagues:

Dimitrijie Saranac, Dragan Marjanovic, Dane Samardakovic, Miroslav Stojanovic and Sandor Tot.

Sincerely Yours 

Ivan Novkovic