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Alok Kumar, who defeated Harish Gandhi in the National billiards championship at the Sports Club of Gujarat here on Sunday. - Photo: Paras Shah.

AHMEDABAD, JAN. 27. Alok Kumar made a steady progress as the competition got intense with several players breaking the 200 barrier, in the 68th National billiards championship at the Sports Club of Gujarat here on Sunday.

The 1999 champion Alok scored his second straight win in a group `E' league match against Harish Gandhi of Madhya Pradesh and assured himself a place in the pre-quarterfinals. The Punjab cueist had breaks of 131, 96, 82 and 73 and won by a decent margin, 882-451.

As the league matches on the fourth day got underway, two more players added their names in the list of the double centurians. Defending champion Devendra Joshi and former world champion Manoj Kothari followed Rupesh Shah and Pankaj Advani in the big scorers league.

Joshi left nothing to imagination in his polished break of 215, on his seventh visit against Sanjiv Sabarwal of Uttar Pradesh. His 881-273 win also included a century break of 122. Kothari had breaks of 229, 110, 78, 87, 116, in his 922-388 win over Varun Taneja.

While other top players have slowly got into the form, World Champion Geet Sethi was yet to get into his groove. Sethi scored a regulation 880-308 win against I.S. Malik of Uttar Pradesh. It included breaks of 128, 53, 110, 61 and 85.

With just one round of matches remaining in the league, the knock-out picture has become clearer. Sethi, Mukesh Rehani, Joshi, Md. Asim, Ashok Shandilya, M.E. Jokhi, Kothari, Advani, Shyam Jagtiani, Rupesh Shah, Nalin Patel and Siddharth Parikh have ensured their berths in the pre-quarterfinals.

Meanwhile, Junior National champion Pankaj Advani continued with his remarkable show. The 16-year-old from Karnataka showed immense concentration in compiling canons and red pots as he chalked out a huge break of 271, the highest of the tournament so far. He also had a break of 193, in his 950-403 victory against S. Mumtaz Ali of Bihar, on Saturday evening.

In the junior National snooker championship being played at the Ellisbridge Gymkhana, defending champion Manan Chandra of Delhi, Pankaj Advani, Mudit Poddar and Sourav Kothari, both of Bengal, made it to the final round. The four will play in a round-robin league on January 30 and 31 and the one with the maximum wins will emerge as champion.

The results:

Preliminary league: Group A: Geet Sethi (Guj) bt I.S. Malik (UP) 880-308; Vishal Abrol (J and K) w/o Deepak Goel (Har).

Group B: Devendra Joshi (Mah) bt Sanjiv Sabarwal (UP) 881-273; V.M. Benny (Ker) w/o Kuldip Singh (Raj); Sanjiv Sabarwal (UP) bt V.M. Benny (Ker) 450-318.

Group C: Ashok Shandilya (Rly) bt A. Haque (Ori) 771-232.

Group D: Manoj Kothari (Ben) bt Varun Taneja (Del) 922-388; Pankaj Advani (Kar) bt S. Mumtaz Ali (Bih) 950-403.

Group E: Shyam Jagtiani (Rly) bt D. Rajkumar (Kar) 737-343; Alok Kumar (Pun) bt Harish Gandhi (MP) 882-451.

Group F: Antim Singhi (Rly) w/o V.M. Mohd. Arshad (Ker); Rupesh Shah (Guj) bt Harpreet Singh (Ori) 910-122; Antim Singhi (Rly) w/o Manish Srivastava (Chg).

Group G: Dharminder Lilly (Pun) bt Sohail Khalid (J and K) 712-287; Rafat Habib (Rly) bt Jai Ganesh (TN) 601-405; Jai Ganesh (TN) bt Sohail Khalid (J and K) 790-193.

Group H: Dhruv Sitwala (Rly) bt Kamal Chawla (MP) 592-379; Prem Prakash (TN) w/o Sanjeev Dhawan (Har); Siddharth Parikh (Rly) bt M.S. Reddy (AP) 638-377; Kamal Chawla (MP) w/o Sanjeev Dhawan (Har).

Junior snooker: Fourth round: Sourav Kothari (Ben) bt Dhruv Varma (Pun) 73-41, 22-64, 65-11, 43-33; Pankaj Advani (Kar) bt Wasim Ahmed (TN) 76-16, 83-1, 56-42. Third round: Dhruv Varma (Pun) bt Akram Khan (Ben) 50-72, 53-57, 59-12, 61-50, 67-44; Pankaj Advani (Kar) bt Maneesh Bahel (UP) 61-2, 60-40, 83-1; Wasim Ahmed (TN) bt Pamin Shah (Guj) 58-49, 24-55, 64-21, 4-54, 70-42.

Second round: Dhruv Varma (Pun) bt Ashwarya Arya (MP) 58-42, 63-43, 59-47; Pamin Shah (Guj) bt Lucky Vatnani (AP) 22-58, 65-7, 52-17, 57-61, 54-47.

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