Pankaj Advani claims World Billiards Championship
Pankaj Advani created history by winning World Billiards Championship after defeating nine times champion Mike Russel at the Northern Snooker Centre on Sunday, in Leeds. Advani is the second Indian to win a world Championship, first being Geet Sethi.
INDIA'S TOP ace Pankaj Advani created history by winning World Billiards Championship after defeating nine times champion Mike Russel at the Northern Snooker Centre on Sunday night (September 6), in Leeds.
Advani who was awarded the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award in 05-06, for excellence in Sports beat the defending champion Russell 2030-1253.
Pankaj Advani is only the second Indian to win a world Championship, the first one was Geet Sethi who unfortunately crashed out of the tournament this time in a league match against Champion Advani 482-818.
It could well have been an All India show but Rupesh Shah frittered away the first session lead to go down 880-1366 against Russel in the second semi-finals.
Advani is business communications student of Sri Bhagawan Mahaveer Jain College, Bangalore. In 2006, he gave up the Asian U-21 Snooker and Asian Billiards in Iran to finish his BCom Exams. Now Pankaj is doing a one year post graduate course in business Management from the same college. The college has given him 100 per cent scholarship from the time he joined.
He broke records at the state and national ranking tournaments at the junior and senior levels. He became the youngest Senior National Champion at the age of 17 (in snooker) breaking Geet Sethi's record (20 yrs). He then brought home the IBSF World Snooker Title in October 2003, becoming the youngest Asian to bring this trophy back to India after 19 years. Pankaj got the Arjuna Award in 2004 for this. In 2005, he won the Jr and Sr National Billiards title, the Asian Billiards title and the Double World Billiards titles in Malta. In the points format, he beat Devendra Joshi and in the Time format, he got the better of Geet Sethi, the World No 1 then.
Pankaj Advani is only the second Indian to win a world Championship, the first one was Geet Sethi who unfortunately crashed out of the tournament this time in a league match against Champion Advani 482-818.
It could well have been an All India show but Rupesh Shah frittered away the first session lead to go down 880-1366 against Russel in the second semi-finals.
Advani is business communications student of Sri Bhagawan Mahaveer Jain College, Bangalore. In 2006, he gave up the Asian U-21 Snooker and Asian Billiards in Iran to finish his BCom Exams. Now Pankaj is doing a one year post graduate course in business Management from the same college. The college has given him 100 per cent scholarship from the time he joined.
He broke records at the state and national ranking tournaments at the junior and senior levels. He became the youngest Senior National Champion at the age of 17 (in snooker) breaking Geet Sethi's record (20 yrs). He then brought home the IBSF World Snooker Title in October 2003, becoming the youngest Asian to bring this trophy back to India after 19 years. Pankaj got the Arjuna Award in 2004 for this. In 2005, he won the Jr and Sr National Billiards title, the Asian Billiards title and the Double World Billiards titles in Malta. In the points format, he beat Devendra Joshi and in the Time format, he got the better of Geet Sethi, the World No 1 then.
He was the first and only person in the history of Billiards to have won all five titles in one season. He was the first one to have the double World Billiards title as well. For these achievements, he has just been awarded the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award - the highest sporting honour in the country. Pankaj now has four World Titles (3 Billiards and 1 Snooker) and two Asian Billiards titles to his credit. He is the only Khel Ratna awardee from Karnataka and is the reigning National Billiards and Snooker Champion. One of his sweetest victories was the gold medal that he won for his country in the Asian Games Billiards event in Doha in 2006.
This is Advani’s first Professional Billiards World Title. He has already won several other titles including the amateur’s world billiards and snooker championships. Pankaj Advani won his first World Championship title in 2003 IBSF World Snooker Championship in China. After winning the World Amateur Championship in the year 2005, at Qawra, Malta he became the only second cueist after Malta’s Paul Misfud to have won both amateur world titles and world snooker titles.
This is Advani’s first Professional Billiards World Title. He has already won several other titles including the amateur’s world billiards and snooker championships. Pankaj Advani won his first World Championship title in 2003 IBSF World Snooker Championship in China. After winning the World Amateur Championship in the year 2005, at Qawra, Malta he became the only second cueist after Malta’s Paul Misfud to have won both amateur world titles and world snooker titles.
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