U17, U21 Snooker Championships in Lahore from July 31

KARACHI: Top youngsters from all over the country will be taking part in the National Junior Under-17 Snooker Championship 2021 and the National Junior Under-21 Snooker Championship 2021 due to be staged in Lahore from July 31 to August 10.

The details of the twin junior events were shared with the media by Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA) president Jawed H Karim and PBSA chairman Alamgir Anwar Shaikh in a brief session here at the Karachi Press Club on Tuesday.

The number of participants in the under-17 competition would be 18, divided into four groups for the preliminary rounds, to be best-of-five-frame contests, they said.

The top two cueists from each of the four groups will advance to the knockout phase, starting with quarter-finals.

The under-21 event will have the same format where the participating cueists, however, will be 19. Both the junior national events will be offering identical cash awards of Rs130,000 each.

The winner will be taking home a purse of Rs50,000, while the runner-up will be receiving Rs25,000. The losing semi-finalists will be getting Rs15,000 each and the losing quarter-finalists Rs5,000 each. The highest break of the event will fetch Rs5,000.

The PBSA also announced that the winners of both the events would be sent for the IBSF World Championships of their age groups, subject to the availability of funds.