Defending champion Sourav Kothari and last year’s runner-up Siddharth Parikh got off to impressive starts, winning their opening league matches 3-0 in the Manisha National billiards and snooker championship at the PYC Gymkhana here on Friday.
Also notching up wins were B. Bhaskar, Pankaj Advani, Dhwaj Haria, Dhruv Sitwala, Alok Kumar, Brijesh Damani and Shyam Jagtiani.
Veteran Alok Kumar dropped a frame but beat Amit Sharma.
“My record must be unique,” the 48-year-old said after victory. “I played my first Nationals in 1987 and I have not missed a single Nationals since then. First I took part in the junior Nationals, and from 1988 onwards, I have been playing the seniors.
“I think in one particular year, there were two Nationals, and so this has to be my 32nd nationals in a row.”
“I think I was also responsible for the introduction of a nationals for the sub-juniors; they had no competition and then we also needed players to compete with Pankaj (Advani).”
Ashutosh Padhy wins
Odisha’s Ashutosh Padhy won the junior boys’ snooker title here on Friday topping the semifinal league.
The other three semifinalists were Madhya Pradesh’s Hritik Jain, Mohd. Hussain Khan and Maharashtra’s Sparsh Pherwani.
Important results: Group A: Sourav Kothari (PSPB) bt Sonam Gurung (Meg) 3-0 [101 (61)-13, 100 (94) - 17, 100 (68) - 0]; Group B: Siddharth Parikh (Rlys) bt Ajinkya Agnihotri (Har) 3-0 [101-15, 101-07, 102-34]. Group C: B. Bhaskar (Kar) bt Ketan Chawla (MP) 3-0 [100-64, 100-21, 101-52]; Group E: Pankaj Advani (PSPB) bt Anupam Jha (Bih) 3-0 [100-39, 101-3, 101-0]. Group H: Dhruv Sitwala (PSPB) bt Mumtaz Ali (Jhar) 3-0 100-60, 100-0, 100-0); Group J: Alok Kumar (PSPB) bt Amit Sharma (Delhi) 3-1 [100-41, 68-100, 100-14, 100-43]; S. Shrikrishna (TN) bt Nikhil Ghadge (Rlys) 3-0 [100-0, 100 (52) - 64 (54), 102 (68)-45]; Group K: Brijiesh Damani (PSBP) bt Siddharth Patni (MP) 3-0 [101-55, 102-19, 100-38]; Group L: S Simhachalan (Rlys) bt Hemant Kumar (Rlys) 3-0 [100-82, 100-75, 100-77]; Group M: Rohan Jambusaria (Mah) bt Aditya Agarwal (Rlys) 3-2 [100-93, 8-100, 100-67, 91-101, 101-66]; K Venkatesham (Rlys) bt Tushar Shresta (Bih) 3-0 [100-16, 102-42, 101-33]; Group N: D Raj Kumar (Kar) bt Shahbaaz Adil Khan (PSPB) 3-0 [101-86, 100-88, 100-18]; Group P: Rishabh Thakkar (Mah) bt V. Subramanian (Mah) 3-2 [88 (55) - 100, 56 (45) -101 (70*); 100 (40*)- 57, 102-67, 100-61] .
