China Rules. Retained title in Asia
This would have first time in the history of World Snooker where two Under-21 Chinese boys Zhao Xingtong and Zhou Yuelong entering into Men's World Championship.
This would have first time in the history of World Snooker where two Under-21 Chinese boys Zhao Xingtong and Zhou Yuelong entering into Men's World Championship.
Not a pleasant day for the host country, Latvia, as their star player Tatjana Vasiljeva suffered a defeat by the hands of reigning champion, Wendy Jans of Belgium.
Lee Walker is now the only competitor for Europe in 2013 IBSF World Championship title. Today morning in quarter finals there was a direct contest between Asia and Europe as all four matches were between players from Asia and Europe. Where Asian players won three matches, Lee Walker of Wales was the only one who stand alone in the title race. He defeated Muhammed Shehab of UAE 6-3.
The last 16 stage matches have finished and in the quarter-final line up there is a direct contest between Asia vs. Europe. Where European players are looking to win the title, Asian players are trying to retain the same in Asia for the fourth time in a row.
Winner and Runner-up of this year's World 6Reds championship have lost their respective matches in the last 32 stage of this 15 reds snooker championship. Both the players, Duane Jones (Wales) and Michael Judge (Ireland), lost to Irishmen, Brenden O'Donoghue and David Hogan.
Lee Walker of Wales played a fabulous match and started with two breaks of 54 and 68 points to shatter his opponent Joseph McLaren of Scotland. Joseph must be under pressure else he could have given a good finish despite scoring 54 and 49 points.
Defending champion from Pakistan, Muhammad Asif made an early exit losing to India's Shahbaaz Adil Khan in Last-64 match. Asif was down 3-1 from where he recovered to 3-all but Shahbaaz held his nerves better in the decider to knockout Asif 4-3.
India to host 2014 World Championship; 2015 will be hosted by South Africa
Last night the Annual General Meeting of IBSF was held in Hotel Latgola, Daugavpils and discussed many topics.
The IBSF President, Jim Leacy has completed his one year in office and he tabled reports on the developmental activities held during the year and submitted the plans for the years to come. The activities took place during the year were setup IBSF Headquarter in Dubai, developing relations with World Professional Body (WPBSA), Introducing New IBSF Website, and inauguration of World 6 Reds championship along with revival of World team championship after a gap of 7 years.
The AGM has also agreed to increase the annual affiliation fee from $300 to $400. The same will be effective from January 1st, 2014. The IBSF President thanked all countries for accepting.
This increase will help to reduce the burden of prize fund, which is now been paid by IBSF.
The General Secretary, Mr. Kammah asked countries who wished to host next year's championship and it was a moment of pride for IBSF that not only for 2014, the countries shown their interest but for 2015 and 2016 as well.
The host countries for next year is:
Egypt (Sharm-El-Sheikh) - 2014 IBSF World 6-Red and World Team Snooker.
Russia (St. Petersburg) - 2014 IBSF World Under-21 Snooker Championship (to be confirmed)
England (Leeds) - 2014 World Billiards Championships
India (Bangalore) - 2014 IBSF World Championships (Men, Women and Masters).
The proposed host countries for 2015 are:
Pakistan (Karachi) - 2015 IBSF World 6-Red and World Team Snooker.
England (Leeds) - 2015 World Billiards Championships
South Africa (Cape Town) - 2015 IBSF World Championships (Men, Women and Masters)
Qatar - 2016 IBSF World Championships (Men, Women and Masters)
( to be confirmed)
The meeting ended with vote of thanks to Latvian Federation for their hospitality and efforts to host 2013 championship.
Manan Chandra of India started exhibiting his caliber in style. He produced breaks in all four frames he played today with a massive one in third frame with a total clearance of 126 points while playing against Francisco Rodriguez (SPN).
He has topped his group by winning 5 matches out of six he played. The only match he had lost was last night where Andreas Ploner better his performance over him in the decider frame.
On the other side, Andreas Ploner who was looking to overtake Manan in the same group's tally, lost his last match 2-4 from Karim Elabd of Egypt. Andreas managed to win only first & third frame where Karim captured rest of the frames.
It was tit for tat time in the match between Steve Mifsud of Australia and Kacper Filipiak of Poland. Steve started well with a break of 70 but Kacper in the very next frame hit a 70 of his own. Kacper continued with strong game and won the next two frames to put Steve under pressure. But because of his vast experience Steve took it as a challenge and won the next frame to narrow the deficit. Kacper break of with 50 in the 6th frame made the situation quite bleak for Steve but a controlled game by Steve pushed the match into a decider. The decider was more one-sided and Steve took a breath of relief after winning the match.