Javaid, Afzal extend unbeaten run in U21 snooker

KARACHI: The Punjab duo of Abdul Javaid and Mohammad Afzal extended their unbeaten run in the eighth edition of the National Under-21 Snooker Championship 2016 here on Friday.

Top seeded Abdul Javaid, hailing from Rawalpindi, displayed his break-building prowess by chalking up breaks of 55 and 50 as he demolished Mohammad Farooq of Balochistan in his fourth game on Friday.

Afzal, coming from the town of Sahiwal, was made to work harder by Hiskial Bilal of Balochistan.

Having won four matches each, Javaid and Afzal have boosted their chances of reaching the knockout stage of the competition. They will have high hopes of directly qualifying for the quarter-finals if they beat their opponents in the last league outing.

A total of 36 cueists from all over the country have entered the championship, divided in six groups for the preliminary rounds. The top two cueists from each of the six groups will be advancing to the knockout phase. The top four will move directly into the quarter-finals, leaving the remaining eight to fight it out in pre-quarter-finals.

The winner of the championship, due to conclude on Wednesday, will receive a cash award of Rs50,000 and the runner-up Rs25,000.

The losing semi-finalists will be given Rs15,000 each, while the losing quarter-finalists will be collecting Rs5,000 each.

The highest break award will fetch Rs5,000.

The finalists will represent Pakistan in the Asian Under-21 Snooker Championship 2016 in Sri Lanka and the World Under-21 Snooker Championship 2016 in Belgium later this year.

Results: Faheem Nazeer (Pjb) bt Azam Khan (KP) 3-0 (67-62, 67-30, 59-30); Mohammad Ibrahim (Bal) bt Hassan Ali Adnan (KP) 3-0 (62-27, 67-23, 98-10); Zubair Shamsi (Sindh) bt Fahad Ghaffar (Isb) 3-1 (35-53, 56-32, 89-40, 73-53); Hamza Ali (Sindh) bt Usama Haneef (Pjb) 3-0 (70-35, 64-28, 61-30); Mohammad Shahbaz (Pjb) bt Rabish Parvaiz (Bal) 3-0 (75-35, 58-33, 67-46); Hiskial Bilal (Bal) bt Fareed Firdous (Sindh) 3-2 (27-53, 53-39, 51-50, 21-63, 50-28); Abdul Javaid (Pjb) bt Muhammad Farooq (Bal) 3-0 (87-0, 60-16, 56-12); Adil Zafar (Pjb) bt Ghawish Khan (Sindh) 3-2 (59-49, 39-61, 73-40, 2-53, 89-43); Fahad Ghaffar (Isb) bt Azam Khan (KP) 3-0 (62-4, 73-16, 63-46); Mohammad Ibrahim (Bal) bt Hamza Ali (Sindh) 3-1 (66-36, 8-63, 64-9, 76-12); Junaid Akhtar (KPK) bt Maaz Samad (Isb) 3-0 (72-22, 69-34, 55-23); William Leffourgue (Isb) bt Naimatullah (Bal) 3-0 (walkover); Mohammad Adil (Bal) bt Faheem Nazeer (Pjb) 3-0 (57-1, 61-21, 67-59); Hammad Rasool (Isb) bt Hassan Ali Adnan (KP) 3-0 (51-40, 50-40, 58-18)l Usama Qurashi (Isb) bt Mohammad Shahbaz (Pjb) 3-2 (19-57, 79-30, 59-39, 36-71, 61-24); Mohammad Afzal (Pjb) bt Hiskial Bilal (Bal) 3-1 (63-38, 59-64, 55-43, 53-19).