The Hindu : Sport : Advani is awesome

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Thursday, Jan 12, 2006

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Sport

Advani is awesome

S.R. Suryanarayan

Champion carves out a massive break of 867

CHENNAI: It was a moment meant for champions.

PSPB's Pankaj Advani, the defending champion, announced his intentions with a phenomenal break of 867 against Elango of Tamil Nadu to earn his passage into the pre-quarterfinals of the LIC-BSNL National billiards championship here on Wednesday.

The scoreline read a whopping 1210-68.

The great Geet Sethi, despite having an indifferent time, came up to ask "why did you not go for the 1000 (break)?" The seven-times National champion should know, for he himself has had such landmark efforts in his illustrious career.

As for Pankaj himself, it was an occasion and he realised, as an afterthought, that he could have made it grander by reaching the four-figure mark that seemed within his grasp.

Haste makes waste

"Initially I found the roll of the ball slow but later found I could go on and on. I thought there was little time left (1-1/2 hours is a session) and so played in a hurry and thus missed out," he said when told that six minutes had still remained.

But as long as he was there it was amazing sight as he moved from one side of the table to the other guiding the red or the white for cannons and in-offs. Overall his top-table effort was a class act. Poor Elango had to, for most part, to sit in his corner but the sportsman that he is, he kept cheering his young rival.

The results (league): Group A: Brijesh Damani (WB) bt Raunaq Vazirani (Rly) 677-274; Pankaj Advani (PSPB) bt Elango 1210-68; Shakeel Ahmed (WB) bt Kamal Rohmetra (J & K) 367-283; Brijesh bt Elango 619-274; Pankaj bt Shakeel 784-241; Kamal bt Raunaq 472-253.

Group B: Manan Chandra (PSPB) bt Yogesh Rai (Rly) 400-379; Devendra Joshi (PSPB) bt Aditya Goenka (WB) 852-222; Arvind Savur (Kar) bt Nitin Agarwal (MP) 595-340; Aditya bt Manan 389-330; Yogesh bt Nitin 554-206; Devendra bt Savur 550-409.

Group C: Sourav Kothari (PSPB) bt Siddharth Parikh (Rly) 363-327; Geet Sethi (Guj) bt S. Das (Ori) 547-337; Yasin Merchant (Mah) bt Raghu Sinha (U.P.) 561-419; Siddharth bt Das 576-224; Sourav bt Raghu 835-249.

Group D: Ashok Shandilya (Rly) bt Balanand Sinha (Bih) 944-109; D. Lilly (Pun) bt Nitin Kohli (U.P.) 407-393; R. Prabakar (Rly) bt Balanand 398-307.

Group E: Rafath Habib (Rly) bt I.S. Malik (U.P.) 531-280; B. Bhaskar (Kar) bt Nadeem Ahmed (TN) 772-169; K. Venkatesham (Rly) bt Ajay Rehani (Del) 711-234; Nadeem bt Malik 464-329; Rafath bt Ajay 585-266.

Group F: Alok Kumar (PSPB) bt Amilal (Del) 509-374; Amilal (Del) w/o Antim Singhi (Rly); Prem Prakash (TN) bt L. Durgaprasad (AP) 641-296; Antim bt S.A. Saleem (TN) 461-311.

Group G: Dhruv Sitwala (PSPB) bt T.V. Rajiv (AP) 586-193; V. Subramaniam (Mah) bt Rajiv (AP) 449-219; Neeraj Kumar (Bih) bt Md. Asim (Rly) 459-382.

Group H: Rupesh Shah (Guj) bt Harish Gandhi (MP) 582-203; Arun Agarwal (Mah) bt Hasan Haque (Ors) 540-288; Harish bt M.C. Manoj (TN) 449-362.

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