IBSF World u-21 Snooker Championshp in Goa from tomorrow

Panaji, Aug 21 (UNI) India boys team, led by Junior National snooker champion Rishabh Pandya (Mumbai), Shravan Mohta (Nagpur), Shivam Arora (Bihar), Younis Kuchey, Shaanbaaz Adil Khan, Balaji Reddy, Ajay Bhushan and Pushpinder Singh, will compete with the top international teams for top honours in the Vascon-Manisha IBSF World under-21 Snooker Championship 2007, which will get underway from tomorrow at Bogmallo Beach resort in South Goa.

Speaking to mediapersons today, the tournament director, Mahamood Kammah, said Goa is hosting this tournament for the first time and it is also for the first time the championship for both boys and girls is being held.

He said about 25 countries will participate in the championship including defending champions China, Australia, Baharain, Egypt, Emirates, England, Latvia, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Poland, Qatar, Republic of Ireland, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sweden, Syria, Scotland, Thailand, Iran and Wales besides India, will be seen in action.

Sri Lanka and Khazakistan had withdrawn their teams at the last moment, Mr Kammah said.

Reigning champions China has been top seeded, while India are seeded 10th.

India will field a contigent of 8 boys and 4 girls. The female participants from other countries includes one each from New Zealand, China, two each from Iran.

Mr Kammah said from August 22 to 28, the championship matches will be played on round robin league and from August 29 knock-out will start followed by semi-finals and finals on August 30 and 31.

Both semi-finals and finals will be telecast live on DD Sports, Mr Kammah informed.

The Billiards Snooker Association of Maharashtra (BSAM) joint secretary Devedra Joshi said ''Both boys and girls teams of India are young teams and do not have much of international exposure, but being a host we have a good chance to perform well. India's main hope lies on the centre of excellence players Junior National Snooker Champion Rishabh Pandya, Shravan Mohta and Shivam Arora, who had practiced in Thailand.

India's girls team include Arantxa Sanchis, Keerat Bhandari, Lavanya Bhaskaran and Akanshya Singh.

The prize money at stake is USD 12,000, with USD 4,000 for the winners among the boys and USD 2,000 among the girls.

UNI