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SNOOKER – Riley Powell from Wales headlined the cast of four that made it through to the men’s six-red semi-finals last night in the IBSF World Snooker Championships 2025, currently being held in Bahrain.
Powell edged past Paras Gupta of India 5-4 (48-16, 28-40, 42-1, 64-22, 2-37, 47-13, 14-56, 19-39, 41-4) to advance. The knockouts’ top seed posted breaks of 32, 42, and 36 in the first, third, and sixth frames, respectively.
The 16-year-old will next face Fung Kwok Kai of Hong Kong in the semis, while the other final four contest is an all-Indian affair between Aditya Mehta and Pankaj Advani.
Kai defeated Firas Kamil Shaba of Iraq 5-3 (43-0, 47-22, 40-4, 0-44, 0-31, 10-55, 61-0, 35-31) while scoring a 61 break in frame seven. He also had breaks of 34 in both the third and eighth frames in his win.
Mehta posted a 5-2 (74-0, 42-17, 2-39, 48-0, 0-38, 38-8, 75-0) victory over countryman Manan Chandra to go through. Mehta’s triumph included an outstanding 75 break in the last frame, while he also scored 38 and 32 in frame one and 48 in taking the fourth.
Advani, meanwhile, overcame a tough challenge from 16-year-old Chen Qien of China. He shrugged off three successive scoreless frames to eke out a 5-4 (39-26, 18-55, 43-5, 64-1, 42-1, 0-70, 0-59, 0-68, 38-14) result. Advani had a break of 41 in the fifth frame, whereas Qien came up short from completing a resounding comeback, posting breaks of 70, 58, and 64 in the sixth through eighth frames.
The men’s six-red semis are scheduled for a 10am start today, to be followed by the highly anticipated title-decider at 4pm.
In the world championships’ under-21 division yesterday, Pan Yiming of China set up an exciting gold medal clash with Sebastian Milewski of Poland.
Yiming defeated countryman Hi Jiayun 5-2 (62-52, 70-20, 52-57, 72-28, 66-1, 6-75, 64-5) to make it through, while Milewski overcame a sensational century break of 119 from Ahsan Ramzan of Pakistan in frame two in a 5-2 (59-46, 9-119, 38-60, 60-48, 77-1, 61-33, 72-31) victory to advance. Milewski had breaks of 66 and 60 in the fifth and seventh frames.
The final is set for 1pm today as part of the concluding day’s schedule in this year’s world championships.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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