Indians Sweep IBSF Honors Pankaj Advani Wins 14th Title in World Billiards Championship

India ruled the roost in the 2015 IBSF World Billiards Championship, which concluded at Adelaide’s Oceania Snooker Academy and Billiards & Snooker Association of South Australia on Sunday. The most remarkable performance came from India’s Pankaj Advani, who won the final of the timed event beating old foe Peter Gilchrist of Singapore. It was Advani’s 14th world title and he won it in style by defeating Gilchrist by a whopping margin of 1168 points. Earlier in the week, Gilchrist had beaten Advani in the points-format and therefore, it was a sweet revenge for the Indian cueist. Apart from Advani, there were other Indians, who came up with dominating performance in the tournament. In men’s under-21 category, the title was clinched by India’s S Shrikrishna, who defeated compatriot Ishpreet Chadha while women’s final was also an all-Indian affair, where Arantxa Sanchis beat R Umadevi.

Indian cueists had a great time in the just concluded IBSF World Billiards Championship at Adelaide. In the men’s draw, three Indians progressed to the semifinals. However, Rupesh Shah lost to the eventual champion Pankaj Advani and Siddharth Parikh was beaten by Peter Gilchrist. Both Rupesh and Siddharth were awarded the bronze medal. In the men’s under-21 category too, all semifinalist were Indians, whereas the women’s event saw three Indians in the last four.

Defending champion, Pankaj Advani played brilliantly against Singapore’s Peter Gilchrist. At the end of the first session, Advani led by 1167 points after picking up an initial break of 127. Subsequently, Advani kept piling up impressive breaks of 360, 301, 284, 124 and 101. Advani’s aggregate reached 1368 against Gilchrist’s paltry 219 at the end of session 1 and left the spectators spellbound with his prolific play and masterly craft. In the next 2½ hour second session, the 30-year old Advani continued to torment his opponent. He had two century breaks but for the first time in the match, Gilchrist responded with a break of 284 points. The Singaporean also had two other century breaks but as time clicked by, Advani was in a comfortable position. Then the Indian came up with a massive break of 430 points that drove the last nail in the coffin. This huge break remained unfinished even as the 300-minute allotted time-limit was reached.

Advani’s emphatic victory was the stamp of his rightful authority in billiards at the world level. In 2012, he had beaten England’s Mike Russell in the Time format and also won two titles in Point and Time formats in 2014. A month ago, Advani won his 13th world title after defeating China’s Yan Bingtao 6-2 in the best-of-11 frame final in Karachi.

The 2015 IBSF World Championship was also remarkable for Indian cueists’ dominance in other categories. Four Indian reached the semifinals in men’s under-21 category. Ishpreet Singh Chadha defeated Jagadesh B by 462 points while S Shrikrishna beat Kaaya Bharath by 268 points. In the final, however, Shrikrishna beat Ishpreet to win the title. In women’s draw, three Indians; R Umadevi, Arantxa Sanchis and Meenal Thakur reached the semifinal along with Australia’s Anna Lynch. In the semifinals, Uma defeated Lynch by 108 points while Arantxa beat compatriot Meenal by 115 points. Arantxa Sanchis was the winner of the women’s title after she defeated Uma in the final.