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Billiards & Snooker
By Kirti Patil
Dhruv Sitwala on his way to the highest break of 359 against G. Kishore Kumar in the senior National billiards championship at Jammu on Thursday. — Photo: Sandeep Saxena
Having received walkover from Antim Singhi in the morning match, Sitwala returned in the afternoon and went on the scoring spree. Warming himself up with breaks of 87, 80 and 53, Sitwala compiled 161 to surpass Pankaj Advani's 147, which the teenager had made in the morning. On his 13th visit to the table, Sitwala was to come up with a break of 359, the highest so far of the tournament. In the last Nationals in Ahmedabad, Pankaj's 271 was the highest break. Sitwala, who also plays on the professional circuit, is aiming higher this year. In the pro list, he is ranked World number 15 and a good finish here should earn him the ticket to the coming Asian billiards championship, scheduled to be held in Myanmar. India is entitled for two entries, besides the reigning champion Ashok Shandilya. In November last year, Sitwala had lost to Sethi in the quarterfinals of the IBSF World championship in Sydney. There he had a personal highest break of 402 in the time format event. Sitwala made it here, his fifth Nationals, through the qualifying tournament. For a player of his class, it defies logic. But the outdated format of the Billiards and Snooker Federation of India (BSFI), allows only two players each from the State or the participating unit. Since Railways nominated Antim Singhi and Vishal Madan as its representatives, Sitwala had to qualify and sneak in. In fact, all the four qualifiers were from the Railways. Sadly, Singhi decided to skip the championship without providing any reasons. And, he is not alone in the `gang of absconders'. In the 42-player draw, nine direct entrants have decided to miss this championship. Consequently, there were and will be galore of walkovers during the four days of league stage. The results: Group A: Ami Lal (Del) w.o Parthiv Jhaveri (Guj); Jaswinder Singh (Raj) bt Sohail Khalid (J and K) 434-190; Ashok Shandilya (Rly) bt Sohail Khalid 796-205. Group B: Alok Kumar (Pun) bt S.T. Bhutia (Ben) 825-458; Rishabh Thakkar (Mah) bt Gautam Lakra (J and K) 787-302. Group C: S. Mumtaz Ali (Bih) w.o Lucky Vatnani (AP); Nitin Kohli (UP) bt Kamal Rohmetra (J and K) 460-392. Group D: Pankaj Advani (Kar) bt Ganeshi Lal (HP) 1109-152; Amit Gulati (Har) w.o Rajesh Parwani (Raj); Vishal Madan (Rly) bt I.S. Malik (UP) 665-321; Pankaj Advani w.o Rajesh Parwani; Vishal Madan bt Amit Gulati 765-122. Group E: Rafath Habib (Rly) w.o Rupesh Shah (Guj); D. Bhuvneshwaran (TN) w.o Farooq Ibrahim (AP); Rafath Habib bt Gagandeep Singh (HP) 775-259. Group F: Jai Ganesh (TN) w.o Achint Verma (Pun); Siddharth Parikh (Rly) w.o Achint Verma. Group G: Shyam Jagtiani (Rly) bt Neeraj Kumar (Bih) 503-459; Yogesh Rai (MP) w.o Gaurav Nagpal (Chd). Group H: Dhruv Sitwala (Rly) w.o Antim Singhi (Rly); G. Kishore Kumar (Kar) bt Subrat Das (Ori) 503-243; Dhruv Sitwala bt G. Kishore Kumar 1014-139.
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