(Current Affairs For SSC Exams) Sports,Jan. 2013 - Billiards
Sports
January 2013
Topic : Billiards
World Billiards Championship Title
Indian Billiards Player Pankaj Advani won seventh World Billiards Championship title after comprehensively beating defending champion and seasoned Englishman Mike Russell in the finals of World Billiards Championship 2012. The event was scheduled at the Northern Snooker Centre in Leeds, England where Pankaj scored 1895 points and Russell managed to score only 1216 points losing to Pankaj Advani. Pankaj was on steady rhythm since the beginning of the match and got on track with first break of 147 points followed by 298 points to obtain a lead of 450 points. Russel, on the other hand fearlessly replied with a break of 397 narrowing the deficit to just 60 points. In session 2, Pankaj maintained the same rhythm and kept his attack scoring breaks of 100+ in almost every visit he played where as Russell could manage only breaks of 243 and 120 during the second session play. The win came after Pankaj had choosen to play the World Championships in Leeds with avoiding playing International Championship on the Professional Snooker tour. Prior to this title Pankaj had also won World Professional Billiards title in the year 2009 and it was a case of history repeating itself because Pankaj had beaten Mike Russel with 2030-1253 in the finals of the World Professional Billiards Championship in 2009 at the same venue. The win also marks the eighth overall world title for Pankaj and it is his seventh title in billiards.