Players taking part in the Second Asian 6-Red Snooker Championship practice at the Qatar Billiards and Snooker Federation (QBSF) Hall in Doha, yesterday. The championship begins today and the final will be held on May 27. Players from 17 countries are taking part in the Second Asian 6-Red Snooker Championship. The individual event will be preceeded by the team championship which begins on May 28 and the final will take place on May 30. The team event will be contested by 15 countries. PICTURES BY: QASSIM RAHMATULLAH
by Armstrong Vas
Doha: Saleh Mohammed of Afghanistan leads a galaxy of Asian cueists who will be competing at the Second Asian 6-Red Snooker Championship which kicks off here today at the Qatar Billiards and Snooker Federation (QBSF) Hall at Mansoura.
Cueists from Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, China, Hong Kong, Iran, Iraq, Mongolia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Palestine, Jordan, besides hosts Qatar will be seen in action in the championship which ends with the final on May 27.
On May 3 this year Mohammed, who also represented Pakistan at regional and world level competitions from 1988 to 2006, beat Syria’s Omar Al Kojah 7-2 in a one-sided final to become the first Afghan to win the amateur Asian snooker title.
Mohammed, who lived in Pakistan for many years after becoming a refugee but in 2006 switched to representing Afghanistan, won the 29th edition of the Asian championship held in Pakistan.
Besides Mohammed the other top-ranked players include, Mohammad Al Joakar (UAE), Ang Boon Chin (Singapore), Laxman Singh Rawat (India), Mohamed Shehab (UAE), Lee Chun Wai (Hong Kong), Shivam Arora (India), Muhammad Asif (Pakistan), Passakorn Suwannawat (Thailand), Wang Zepeng (China) and Ehsan Heydarinezhad (Iran).
The Six-Red format is a shortened version of the game which features only six red balls on the table as opposed to the conventional 15.
According to the draws, the 37 participants have been divided in eight groups.
The league matches will continue for two days and the knockout stage will commence with the pre-quarter-finals on Sunday.
All the eight group leaders will qualify directly to the pre-quarter final stage, which will be best of nine frames, while the second and third place finishers with the best record will fight for the last sixteen spot.
Eight tables will be used during the course of the league matches at the QBSF Hall while separate tables have been commissioned for practice in an adjacent hall.
This is the first time the individual 6-Red Championship is been held in Qatar, an event sanctioned by the Asian Confederation of Billiard and Snooker Sports (ACBSS).
“Two players from each country can take part in the 6-red individual championship, except for hosts Qatar, who can have seven players. UAE have three players, as one of the player reached the semi-final of 6-red championship last year and thus got the qualification,” informed Mubarak Hamad Al Khayareen, Secretary General of ACBSS.
The individual event will be followed by the team event on May 28, in which Pakistan, Iran, Hong Kong, Kuwait, China, Iraq, UAE, Mongolia, Thailand, Afghanistan, Jordan, India, Singapore and Saudi Arabia will be seen in action. Hosts Qatar will field two teams – Qatar A and Qatar B.
“Both the Individual and Team event finals on May 27 and 30 will be telecast live by Al Kass TV,” Mubarak added.
Qatar’s challenge will be led by recently turned professional player Ahmed Saif.
The other six Qatari players in the fray are Mosen Bukshaisha, Abdulmohsen Khamis Bashar Hussain and the Obaidly brothers Ali, Khamis and Mohanna.
Qatar coach Mike Russell is optimistic that his ‘best players’ will qualify for the next stage of the individual event.
“From my best players I except play (qualification). Certainly, two to three players will qualify from the group stage and may be to the pre-quarter-final or quarter-final stage I wish. Anything more, especially in the 6-red game, is a bonus,” said the eleven-time Professional world champion.
“It is a tough game and a bit of a leveler, so it is more of a tactical game and we should get our tactics right we might have a chance,” added the Englishman, who has been coaching Qatari players since 2007.
Last year, the QBSF hosted the Asian Snooker Championship, which saw Aditya Mehta beating Pankaj Advani in an all-India final.
QBSF also plays host to the annual World 9-Ball Pool Championship, which is contested by the top players of the world.
This year’s championship will be held from September 2 to 13.
The Peninsula
