KARACHI: Iran’s Amir Sarkosh won the Jubilee Insurance Asian 6-Red Championship, beating Thailand’s Boonyarit Kaettikun 7-6 in the final played at a local hotel in Karachi on Wednesday.
Sarkosh won with a scoreline of 46-44, 12-46, 01-52, 33-0, 43-31, 01-54, 12-45, 0-66, 0-49, 46-0, 63-08, 37-32 and 41-28.
Earlier, he had beaten Pakistan’s Hamza Akbar in the semi-final.
Hamza said he was disappointed to lose the semi-final against Sarkosh 6-5 as he desperately wanted to play at least in the final.
“I’m very disappointed because I wanted to win the gold medal or at least a silver medal in this competition,” Hamza told The Express Tribune.
“My progress had been really good as I won some big matches and even defeated defending champion Mohammad Asif. But I failed in the semis despite playing my heart out. I’m not a part of the Asian Team Championship, so this was the only opportunity for me to play in the final.”
Hamza fought valiantly from 3-0 down to make it 3-3. From there on, both cueists were in contention to go through.
The match went down to the wire with scores levelled at 5-5, but Sarkosh upped the ante and won the decider without giving any opportunity to Hamza, winning with a scoreline of 39-0, 39-24, 42-15, 06-38, 07-46, 23-34, 42-0, 06-61, 60-06,0-61 and 71-0.
“I tried my level best to get the better of Sarkosh, but the last few frames between us were one-sided,” said Hamza. “Whoever got the opportunity was just clean-sweeping the points, and it was my bad luck that Sarkosh had the opportunity in the decider and I never got the chance to do anything.”
“It’s disappointing that no Pakistani player was able to win the 6-Red event, but I’m positive that the Asian Team Championship will be won by one of the Pakistani teams.”
Meanwhile, in the other semi-final, Kaettikun defeated Iran’s Hossien Vafaei Ayouri 6-3 with scores of 13-37, 41-0, 56-14, 36-21, 40-19, 24-39, 33-17, 07-40 and 35-25.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 21st, 2014.
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