The Hindu : Sport / Billiards & Snooker : World U-21 championship from today

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Wednesday, Aug 22, 2007
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Sport - Billiards & Snooker

World U-21 championship from today

Avinash Nair

VASCO (Goa): The battlelines are drawn and the Indians, led by junior National champion Rishabh Pandya, are wary of none as the Vascon-Manisha 20th IBSF World Under-21 snooker championship is all set to kick-off at the Bogmallo Beach resort here from Wednesday.

The picturesque settings at this far off resort is surely expected to bring out the best among the 66 men and nine women in the fray for the title.

The event was last held in Bahrain in 2005, and Mauritius failed to hold the championship last year, according to IBSF Gen Secretary and tournament director Mohammed Kammah from Egypt. Bangalore played host to the same championship way back in 2000. “Russia, Kazakhstan and Sri Lanka have pulled out and hence we have only 24 countries participating,” said Mr. Kammah.

China is top-seeded, with Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Thailand, England, Australia and Belgium following in that order.

The 66 men have been divided into eight groups.

The top four from each group qualify for the round of 32.

“The Indians are expected to make a strong presence at this stage. Thereon it’s going to be close,” said an Indian official.

The top four Indians — Pandya, Shravan Mohta, Shivam Arora and Younis Kuchey won direct entry while Shahbaz Adil Khan, Pushpinder Singh, Ajay Bhushan and Balaji Reddy qualified.

A significant first

For once, the ladies event will also be held alongside and refreshingly nine entries have been received — four of them from India.

Lavanya Bhaskaran, Arantxa Sanchis, Aakansha Singh and Keerat Bhaandal will take on a New Zealand side, led by Ramona Belmont.

One from China, one from China Hong Kong and two Iranians are the others in the round-robin league to decide the champion.

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