Local boy Vishesh Singhal successfully retained both of his sub-junior billiards and snooker titles in the 30th Odisha State Billiards & Snooker Championship, which commenced at 6Pockets Club, Patia Square, Bhubaneswar today. His city-mate Syed Azlan Ali finished runner-up in both the events.

Competition in both the sub-junior billiards and snooker events featured only two players. In the all-Bhubaneswar finals, Singhal beat Ali 160-70 (one-hour time format) in billiards and by 2-0 frames in snooker.

With the sub-junior double crown today, Singhal consolidated his status as the most promising cuesports talent of Odisha. He now has a total six sub-junior and junior state titles in his possession. Class-X student of Loyola School, Singhal made a clean sweep of all four sub-junior and junior titles in the State Billiards & Snooker Championship last year.

The State sub-junior and junior billiards-snooker finals has been a two-player contest for the second successive year with Singhal defeating Ali for the sixth successive time. With the duo set to meet each other in the junior billiards and snooker finals tomorrow, it remains to be seen if Ali, a Class-VIII student of Sai International School, can stop the winning run of Singhal.

Organized by Billiards & Snooker Association of Odisha (BSAO), the 30th edition of the State championship also features competition in senior billiards and snooker. The senior billiards competition, which has 11 cueists in the fray, started today with Nishant Biswal, Aakash Mohapatra, Rakesh Roshan Pradhan and Subrat Das winning respective matches.

The State championship, which was inaugurated in the presence of BSAO secretary Sameer Ali, tournament director Govind Sharma and 6Pockets Club partners Jiten Sarangi and Chetan Anand, would conclude on November 15. The highest number of 35 entries has been received for the senior snooker event. Title winners and runners-up will be eligible to represent Odisha in the National Billiards & Snooker Championship to be held in Indore, Madhya Pradesh during January 2025.
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PHOTO: Sub-junior billiards and snooker champion Vishesh Singhal (Left) and runner-up Syed Azlan Ali pose at the 30 th Odisha State Billiards & Snooker Championship in Bhubaneswar on 8 November 2024.