Daily Times

KARACHI: Pakistan’s Uneder-18 IBSF champion Naseem Akhtar will be looking to defend his title at the Jubilee Insurance 10th National Junior Under-21 Snooker Championship starting in January at Pakistan Sports Complex in Islamabad. The Pakistan Billiards and Snooker Association (PBSA) released their calendar for 2018 during a press conference on Tuesday, and the first two events of the year will take place in the first week on January for the juniors – the Under-16 and Under-21 competitions.

A total of 34 players will be competing in the Under-21 championship in eight groups. The prize money is set at Rs50,000, and Naseem, who became the first Pakistani to win the IBSF Under-18 championship and turned out to be the best young player in 2017 winning both Uner-18 and Under-21 events, is ready to defend his national title.

“I’m training as hard as I can,” Naseem said Thursday. “I’ll be playing in the Under-21 this time and I’m skipping Under-18, but that means there is more competition for me. The upcoming players are all very dedicated, so I need to make sure that I start my year on a high. I definitely want to defend my Under-21 title and win it second time in a row. I’m training eight hours a day; I’m not taking the national championship lightly.” The Under-21 championship will begin on January 13, while the Under-18 event will start from January 6 with players to report at the venue a day before. Similarly, the National masters’ championship will begin on January 27 in Lahore with 32 players giving Imran Shehzad a run for his money as he will vie to defend his title.

Published in Daily Times, January 5^th 2018.