Top cueists for Pool tourney

The billiards pool event has been included as a competitive discipline in the Asian Games at Bangkok in December this year. There will be as many as 12 medals at stake for the Pool game (nine ball Pool Single and nine ball Pool Double. The Centre Billiard Point Pool Tournament is a nine-ball game played on league basis.

The 24 participants for this Pool event have been divided into four groups of six players each. The matches will be played on league basis and the top two of each group will qualify for the quarterfinals, Ravi Tandon of the Delhi Billiards and SnookerAssociation said here today.

The Pool tournament will have a total prize money of Rs 50,000. The winner will get Rs 15,000, runner-up Rs 10,000 and losing semifinalists Rs 5,000 each. Players getting the 5-8 positions will be richer by Rs 2,500 each. Besides, one promising player from each group will be awarded a cash prize of Rs 5,000 each.

Ashok Shandilya, who was present at the function to announce the tournament, revealed that although he had not played in any Pool tournament earlier, he expressed confidence that India would win maximum medals in the event at the Asian Games.

THE GROUPINGS

Group A: Geet Sethi (Gujarat), Anuj Uppal (Delhi), Sidharth Anand (Delhi), Philips Crizzle (Calcutta), Rajat Taneja (Delhi), D Aggarwal (Calcutta).

Group B: Ashok Shandilya (Mumbai), Joy Mehra (Chandigarh/Punjab), Gaurav Anand (Delhi), Irfan Mirza (Calcutta), Loju Thukral (Delhi), Varun Taneja (Delhi).

Group C: Alok Kumar (Punjab), Manan Chandra (Delhi), Shakeel Ahmed (Calcutta), FerozeKhan (Delhi), Sanjay (Delhi) and Vishal Sahay (Calcutta).

Group D: Dharminder Lilee (Punjab), Amit Sharma (Delhi), Subhash Sud (Delhi), Mukesh Rehani (Delhi), Imtiaz Ahmed (Calcutta), Vishal Arora (Punjab).