Promising Odisha cueist Ashutosh Padhy excelled in the Indian National Billiards & Snooker Championship, emerging junior snooker champion and retaining his junior billiards runner-up position at PYC Hindu Gymkhana in Pune.

Bhubaneswar lad Ashutosh won seven matches in a row to capture his second junior (U-17) National snooker title after 2014 Lucknow Nationals. The seven wins included four in knock-out stage and three in league stage. In junior snooker, two other Odisha players _ Soubhagya Behera and Rakesh Barik _ crashed out from the first round in main draw.

Earlier Ashutosh retained his runner-up position in junior billiards category, winning two matches and losing one at the league state, which was played among top four players. Ashutosh qualified for the top-four league by winning all of his three matches at the knock-out stage (main draw). Reigning sub-junior national billiards and snooker champion Srikrishna bagged his maiden junior national billiards crown by all three of his league matches.

In senior billiards, both the Odisha players _ Ashutosh Padhy and Subrat Das _ reached the Round of 32 before losing to respective opponents. The duo qualified for the knock-out stage by finishing second in respective group league with two wins and one defeat each.

In senior snooker, out of six cueists from Odisha, three bowed out from qualifying stage. State champion Ashutosh Padhy and runner-up Subrat Das will play their respective main draw knock- out matches from January 27 onwards.

RESULTS OF ODISHA PLAYERS:

JUUNIOR BILLIARDS:
Knock-out Stage: Ashutosh Padhy beat Dinesh Bajaj (Gujarat) 463-164; beat Mohammad Hussain Khan (MP) 375-247; beat Kreishh Gurbaxani (Maharashtra) 413-236.
League Stage: Ashutosh Padhy beat Sparsh Pherwani (Maharashtra) 571-323; lost to S Srikrishna (TN) 396-666; beat Hritik Jain (MP).

JUNIOR SNOOKER:
League Stage: Ashutosh Padhy beat Hritik Jain (MP) 3-2 (27-73, 57-22, 45-54, 77-36, 78-52); beat Sparsh Pherwani (Maharashtra) 3-0 (81(67)-7, 63-52, 54-17); beat Mohammad Hussain Khan (MP) 3-0.
Knock-out Stage: Ashutosh Padhy beat Raghav Agarwal (Delhi) 3-1; beat Adarsh Verma (Jharkhand) 3-0; beat Loukic Pathera (Maharashtra) 3-2; beat Mandeep Singh (Railway) 3-0.
Soubhagya Behera (Odisha) lost to S Subham (Punjab) 0-3. Rakesh Barik (Odisha) lost to Dhruv Arora (Haryana) 0-3.

SENIOR BILLIARDS:
League Stage:
Group-B: Ashutosh Padhy beat Jagadish (TN) 3-1 (100-92, 105-92, 86-101, 100-81); beat Ajinkya Agnihotri (Haryana) 3-1 (81-100, 100-10, 100-55, 100-79); lost to Siddharth Parikh (Railway) 0-3 (0-103, 15-100, 73-100.
Group-D: Subrat Das beat Deeraj Raj (Telangana) 3-0 (101-96, 100-87, 101-90); beat Kankan Shamsi (UP)3-1 (100 (57)-24, 100-37, 61-101, 100-41); lost to Dhvaj Haria (PSPB) 0-3 (16-100, 19-100, 74-100.
Round of 32: Ashutosh Padhy lost to Dhvaj Haria (PSPB) 0-3 (34-150, 93-154, 125-152). Subrat Das lost to B Bhaskar (Karnataka) 0-3 (49-152, 87-154, 16-151).

SENIOR SNOOKER:
Qualifying: First Round: Amiya Ranjan Nayak (Odi) got walk-over against Dhruv Hiradia (Guj); Satyadeep Das got walk-over against Prabhu Krishna (TN); Ashwin Pattnaik (Odi) lost to Rohit P (Tel) 2-3. Second Round: Satyadeep Das lost to Meherzad Bhagwagar (Guj) 2-3.
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PHOTO: Ashutosh Padhy in action at the National Billiards & Snooker Championship in Pune.