B. Bhaskar and Sourav Kothari will represent India as the top two players, after two rounds of selection trial camps, at the IBSF world billiards championship to be held at Leeds from Oct. 20 to 29.
With Alok Kumar, Brijesh Damani and Malkeet Singh — three of the top eight of Indian billiards — not participating, it was left to the remaining five to fight it out in the two qualifying trials.
Bhaskar, Kothari, Dhruv Sitwala, Rupesh Shah, and Jaiveer Dhingra made up the top five.
The results: Y Camp (150 points up, best of 5 frames): B. Bhaskar bt Jaiveer Dhingra 150-21, 150-111, 150-8; Rupesh Shah bt Dhruv Sitwala 22-150, 150-139, 150-15, 150-32; Sourav Kothari bt Shah 150-142, 150-0, 150-0; Dhingra bt Sitwala 150-133, 150-137, 150-120; Bhaskar bt Kothari 70-151, 150-54, 151-78, 150-97; Shah bt Dhingra 150-116, 150-102, 150-2.
Kothari bt Sitwala 150-6, 150-8, 82-150, 94-150, 150-23; Shah bt Bhaskar 0-150, 150-15, 150-13, 65-150, 150-79; Kothari bt Dhingra 147-152, 33-150, 150-119, 150-24, 152-47; Bhaskar bt Sitwala 152-25, 64-152, 151-38, 151-30.
Z Camp Z (one game of 400 points): Sitwala bt Kothari 400-231; Shah bt Dhingra 400-256; Kothari bt Dhingra 400-149; Sitwala bt Bhaskar 400-256; Bhaskar bt Shah 400-225; Shah bt Sitwala 400-224; Sitwala bt Dhingra 400-224; Kothari bt Shah 400-301; Bhaskar bt Dhingra 400-261; Bhaskar bt Kothari 400-61.
