Muhammad Asif and Muhammad Hasnain secured a title double for Pakistan last night after being crowned champions of their respective categories in the IBSF World Snooker Championships, currently being hosted by Bahrain.
Three-time world snooker champion Asif clinched the masters world title after defeating Brijesh Damani of India in an exciting final that went the maximum and lasted four-and-a-half hours.
Hasnain, meanwhile, secured the men’s under-17 crown following a resounding victory against Riley Powell of Wales.
Asif and Hasnain are the first victors to emerge from this year’s world championships, which are being held under the patronage of Supreme Council for Youth and Sports first deputy chairman, General Sports Authority chairman, and Bahrain Olympic Committee president Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa.
The competition has been organised and is run by the International Billiards and Snooker Federation (IBSF) in cooperation with the Bahrain Billiard Sports and Darts Federation (BBSDF).
Following both finals last night, the winners were presented their respective champions’ trophies in an awarding ceremony. Handing out the prizes to the finalists were IBSF president Mubarak Al Khayarin and BBSDF president Monther Al Basri, in the presence of IBSF treasurer and sports director Joseph Lo. Taking a share of the masters bronze medals were the Indian pair of Manan Chandra and Vijay Nichani, while winning under-17 bronze were Chen Qien of China and Oliwier Nizialek of Poland.
Bahrain is set to crown two more world champions in the men’s six-red and men’s under-21 divisions. Both competitions got underway yesterday with their first preliminary round fixtures. Their matches are scheduled to continue until the concluding day of play on Thursday next week.
In last night’s thrilling masters final, Asif had a brilliant start by taking the first two frames but Damani roared back, winning the next three and moving one frame away from the crown. But Asif showed his poise and took frame six to force the decider, which he dominated to secure the 4-3 (98-37, 75-55, 0-80, 49-52, 41-64, 91-29) result. Asif posted breaks of 87 and 40 in the opening and final frames, respectively.
Asif claimed his first masters world title, adding to his three singles and two team world championships.
In the men’s under-17 gold medal match, Hasnain was in a class of his own in the battle between talented 16-year-olds. Hasnain took the contest 4-0 (86-7, 73-35, 50-31, 98-4) and had breaks of 44 and 67 in the first and fourth frames, respectively.
The result capped Hasnain’s sensational performance in the knockout stages, where he conceded only one frame in four matches. He had earlier beaten Mutasim Al Saadi of Oman 3-0 in the last 16, before taking victories over Krzysztof Czapnik and Oliwier Nizialek, both of Poland, with 3-1 and 4-0 scores, respectively.
Meanwhile, in yesterday’s opening men’s six-red matches, Bahrain had three players in action. Both Mohamed Alshaikh and Punait Saqer were victorious. Alshaikh defeated Ahmed Mustafa of Iraq 4-3 in Group C, while Saqer was a 4-2 winner against Jay Chopra of Ireland in Group N. Jaafar Alraees, on the other hand, lost to Kamal Chawla of India 2-4 in Group A.
There are five other Bahrainis amongst the 60 players competing in the men’s six-red event. They include Habib Sabah, Abdulla Alaali, Hamed Dhaif, Khalil Busaif, and Abdulla Mohammed.
In yesterday’s first men’s under-21 contests, six of Bahrain’s eight entrants suffered losses, including Hussain Aqeel, Salem Alazri, Mahmood Ahmed, Faisal Albasri, Abdulla Alhalwaki, and Mohammed.
The kingdom’s other two players Alaali and Faisal Almaliki were not in action.
A total of 59 are competing in the worlds’ under-21 division.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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