The Hindu : Sport : Ayush Kumar, Pankaj Advani take the honours

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Friday, Jan 06, 2006

Sport

Sport

Ayush Kumar, Pankaj Advani take the honours

S.R. Suryanarayan

THE CHAMPIONS: Ayush Kumar (left), the winner in the sub-junior snooker, and Pankaj Advani, the champion in the junior billiards. — Photo: S.R. Raghunathan

CHENNAI: Ludhiana schoolboy Ayush Kumar emerged as the sub-junior snooker champion while the overwhelming favourite Pankaj Advani of PSPB expectedly took the junior billiards title in the LIC-BSNL National billiards and snooker championship here on Thursday.

Ayush, a plus one student of Sacred Hearts Convent, has been doing well in his State and, in fact, had become India's No. 4 in the under-21 snooker. It was not a thrilling final as both he and his opponent Varun Madhan of Delhi looked tentative and often lapsed into potting errors. The contest was error-filled but a little luck and a pinch of good potting saw Ayush through.

Pankaj was in a different zone in the last league match and effectively the title-encounter. "I must have played my best so far", the champion admitted but that was an understatement. "I am finding the flow on the table quite to my liking and that is a good sign," he added to give enough indication of the shape of things to come.

The World champion simple mesmerised his rival Aditya Mehta of Maharashtra with his superb touch, ever feeble but effective. Like a beaver he went on working on the red with his white cueball and then used the rival's yellow for canon. There was variation in his approach but rarely did the rhythm drop.

Starting with a century break (138) in his fourth visit, Pankaj piled up four more century breaks (175, 113, 140 and 110). In between he had a 201 and a 210 before closing the rival's chapter with an unfinished 310.

The results: Snooker: Sub-junior boys: final: Ayush Kumar (Pun) bt Varun Madhan (Del) 52-15, 39-63, 60-19. Semifinals: Varun Madhan bt Pushpinder Singh (Del) 23-70, 58-51, 45-39; Ayush Kumar bt Rounaq Vazirani (Guj) 36-62, 54-13, 68-29.

Junior boys: First round: Simrajeet Singh (Raj) bt Karan Sharda (Mah) 69-27, 63-36; Balaji (Kar) bt Nabeel (TN) 68-1, 72-58, 50-70, 73-46; Hitesh Soni (Pun) bt Zaid Khan (Tn) 84-53, 87-25, 43-24; Sudhir Pateria (MP) bt R.K. Pradhan (Ors) 41-30, 72-11, 59-41; Vinayak Agarwal (UP) bt Pushpinder Singh (MP) 44-55, 60-20, 66-30, 69-37; Shabaz Adil Khan (WB) bt Satish Kumar (Kar) 61-19, 87-17, 56-63, 105-50; Raunaq Vazirani (Guj) bt Shivam Arora (Bih) 44-64, 67-7, 22-52, 76-44, 71-10; Karthik Ramaswamy (TN) bt Amit Chowdhary (WB) 72-41, 61-16, 2-57, 70-22; Ajay Bhushan (Kar) bt Aditya Agarwal (Mah) 89-1, 45-53, 65-35, 70-69; Chetan Chopra (Har) bt Rahul Arora (UP) 27-58, 52-47, 31-59, 67-41, 56-33; Pranit (TN) bt Sumesh Turki (J & K) 62-30, 60-20, 33-62, 59-67, 64-32.

Women (pre-quarterfinals): M. Chitra (Ktk) bt Sowmini Srinivasan (TN) 67-18, 59-4; Vidya Pillai (TN) bt Neena Praveen (TN) 42-22, 58-14; League: Gr. F: Neethan Sanghvi (Mah) bt Neena Praveen (TN) 66-52, 41-63, 62-47. Gr. G: Heena Kandelwal (Mah) bt Asha (TN) 59-3, 53-11. Gr. H: Sridevi (Kar) bt Sangeeta Hemchand (Mah) 51-60, 55-20, 39-32.

Billiards: Junior boys (league): For 1-2: Pankaj Advani bt Aditya Mehta 1807-535; 3-4: Lucky Vatnani bt Satish Kumar 870-650 Pankaj Advani (PSPB) bt Satish Kumar (Kar) 1716-416; Aditya Mehta (Mah) bt Lucky Vatnani (AP) 1051-608.

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