Peter Gilchrist, who captured the IBSF World billiards (long-up format) championship title on Thursday, eased into the last 16 of the points format event here. Gilchrist finished his group stage engagements with five wins in as many matches. His toughest challenge came against Siddharth Parikh, who had felled Gilchrist on the opening day of the preceding event. This time, however, the in-form Singaporean hit his stride.
India’s B. Bhaskar stayed unbeaten in his group outings as well.
In the evening session, Bhaskar edged out Myanmar cueist, Aung Htay. With the match level at 2-2, Bhaskar pulled out all the stops to take the deciding frame. Htay, whose technique resembles that of a pool player, also made it to the last-16. On this occasion, Htay’s unorthodox style came second best to the classical ways of Bhaskar.
Favourite Pankaj Advani also cruised into the knockout rounds. In his final fixture, Advani put it across Iran’s Sasan Lashkari 152-0, 152-20, 154-0. The Bengaluru lad topped Group ‘A’ with a five-match winning streak.
The results (Indians unless mentioned):
Group A: Pankaj Advani bt Alok Kumar 53-150, 150-117, 151-20, 117-152, 151-94; Chit Ko Ko (Myn) bt Thawat Sujaritthurakarn (Thai) 151-84, 151-91, 124-151, 61-152, 150-48; Thawat bt Jaiveer Dhingra 150-60, 150-30, 30-150, 62-150, 150-104; Advani bt Ko Ko 150-128, 65-150, 150-112, 150-39; Advani bt Lashkari 152-0, 152-20, 154-0.
Group B: Aung Htay (Myn) bt Brijesh Damani 28-150, 152-111, 153-85, 151-82; Dhruv Sitwala bt Mohamed Aslam (SL) 150-29, 150-7, 151-63; B. Bhaskar bt Nalin Patel (Eng) 150-20, 136-150, 150-145, 150-2; Bhaskar bt Htay 0-150, 152-75, 151-88, 66-151, 151-4; Sitwala bt Nalin 151-133 (first 2 frames awarded to Sitwala, as Nalin reported late for the match).
Group C: Peter Gilchrist (Sing) bt Akhilesh Mohan (Fra) 150-60, 151-34, 152-26; Siddharth Parikh bt Dhvaj Haria 94-150, 150-7, 150-13, 124-150, 150-83; Gilchrist bt Parikh 150-65, 12-150, 150-110, 155-0; Rupesh bt Mohan 150-13, 151-74, 150-16.
Group D: Praput Chaithanasakun (Thai) bt Devendra Joshi (Ind) 151-35, 150-144, 150-126; Praput bt Sourav Kothari 18-150, 150-31, 152-104, 150-2; Robert Hall (Eng) bt Joshi 141-151, 100-157, 150-44, 150-13, 150-121; Hall bt Praput 151-23, 153-19, 23-152, 150-24.
Last-16 player list:
Pankaj Advani, Chit Ko Ko, Thawat Sujaritthurakarn, Alok Kumar, B. Bhaskar, Aung Htay, Dhruv Sitwala, Brijesh Damani, Peter Gilchrist, Siddharth Parikh, Rupesh Shah, Dhvaj Haria, Praput Chaithanasakun, Robert Hall, Sourav Kothari, Devendra Joshi.
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