National U-21 Snooker cues off today

KARACHI: The reigning world champion, Muhammad Naseem Akhtar, will defend his title in the Jubilee Insurance 10th National Junior U-21 Snooker Championship 2018 which cues off at the Pakistan Sports Complex in Islamabad on Saturday.

According to the details made available by the Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA) on Friday, a total of 34 cueists from Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), Balouchistan and Islamabad, having been divided in eight groups, will participate in the preliminary rounds at the end of which the top two cueists from each group will qualify for the knockout phase, starting with pre-quarter-finals.

The six day mega event is being supported by Jubilee Insurance Limited and Pakistan Sports Board (PSB). The league matches will be held in four different sessions starting at 10.00 am daily.Holder Naseem Akhtar and last year’s runner-up Haris Tahir, both of them from Punjab province are taking part to add value to the championship.

The draws of the event were taken out on Friday according to which the Group A comprises of Umer Farooq (Pjb), Yasir Ahmed (Bal), Sheikh Ahmed (KP), Ali and Zaman Khan (Sindh) while the Group B contains Sheheryar Khan (Sindh), Hamza Aftab (KPK), Mahmood Ahmed (Isb) and Raees Ali Usama (Pjb).

The Group C has the presence of Usman Khurshid (KP), Syed Adil Shah (Bal), Sheikh M Mudassir (Pjb) and Hussain Godil (Sindh) while the Group D features Rabish Pervez (Bal), Bilal Ali Khan (Sindh), Mubashir Munsif (KP) and M Umer Khan (Pjb).

The quartet of Fahad Ghaffar (Isb), M Shahbaz (Pjb), S.M. Imran (Sindh) and Mubashir Khan (KP) constitutes the Group E while the Group F is composed of Siddiq Khan (Sindh), Fahad Ali (KP), Abdul Aziz (Bal) and Shahzaib Malik (Pjb).

Usman Ahmed (Pjb), Sohaib Usman (Isb), Aqib Nawaz (Sindh), Atif Arshad (KP) and M Naseem Akhtar ( Pjb) have been drawn in the Group G while M Rafiq (KP), Altaf Hussain (Bal), Ahsan Ramzan (Pjb), Yasir Nouman (Sindh) and Haris Tahir (Pjb) are placed in the Group H.