The prestigious ONGC 16th Asian Billiards, 18th U-21 Asian Snooker Championship and the first ever Ladies Asian Snooker Championship will be held from April 8-14 at Hotel Mountview, Sector 10, Chandigarh. The Punjab Billiards and Snooker Association (PBSA) is organizing the Championship under the aegis of the Asian Confederation of Billiard Sports (ACBS) and Billiards and Snooker Federation of India (BSFI). The total prize money of the Championship has been kept at around Rs. 11 lakh.
Giving details Mr. D S Bains (IAS), President, PBSA said, “Internationally renowned cue sports players from over 15 countries will be participating in this Championship and the people of the region will be able to witness world-class talent in action. This is expected to give a big boost to the sport and help enthuse the budding players of the region to better their skills and performance. The participating countries include India, Pakistan, China, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Kazakhstan, UAE, Qatar, Syria, Korea, Japan, Sri Lanka, Mynamar, Iran etc. The current World Billiards Champions Pankaj Advani and Peter Gilchrist will be seen in action here. As you may be aware, an International Billiards and Snooker Champion, Alok Kumar, is already from the region … we hope that more Champions will be created as such prestigious Tournaments are organized in the region.”
Talking about the format for the Championship, Mr. Alok Kumar, General Secretary, PBSA said, “The players will be representing their respective countries. For the ONGC Asian Snooker Under-21 Championship the First Round, Round Robin and the Last 16 Round would be Best of 7 Frames. The Quarter and Semi-Finals would be Best of 9 Frames while the Final would be Best of 11 frames played in one session with a 30-minute break. The Championship will be played on specially imported tables. International referees, along with Indian referees, will be adjudging the games.”
“All players will be seeded and the seeding will be done by the ACBS Seeding Committee, who will take into consideration previous Asian snooker championship records for seeding criteria, including other performance records achieved at other multi-sport events and/or at the IBSF world snooker championship and the WSA professional circuits,” Alok Kumar added.
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