Humza pockets all glory at snooker event

19-year-old crowned Pakistan’s youngest national champion.

KARACHI: Humza Akbar was crowned Pakistan’s youngest national champion after he defeated the country’s former number one cueist Imran Shehzad in a see-saw encounter 8-7 to clinch the Jubilee Insurance 38th National championship at the Karachi Gymkhana yesterday.

With the match level 7-7 in the best-of-15-frame encounter, the 19-year-old showed nerves of steel as he hit a clearance of 54 to win the decider and bag the winner’s trophy.

Humza, who was featuring in his maiden national snooker event, won with frame scores of 79-45, 36-70, 58-61, 76-01, 6-85, 23-89, 67-6, 64-22, 54-46, 80-6, 24-78, 24-73, 63-58, 0-115 and 89-43.

Humza pocketed Rs80,000 prize money, while Imran recieved Rs50,000. Both players are now an automatic choice, along with IBSF world champion Mohammad Asif, for the Asian Championship to be hosted by Pakistan next month.

Pakistan Billiards and Snooker Federation President Alamgir Sheikh praised Humza’s performance and said that his triumph was in no way a fluke.

“Humza showed excellent nerves throughout the event and deserves all the accolades he’s getting,” Sheikh told The Express Tribune.

“He has been on a giant-killing run in the competition and it doesn’t get bigger for a youngster to defeat the likes of Mohammad Sajjad [in the semi-final] and Imran in two of the most crucial matches of his life. I couldn’t have hoped for a better final and Humza won it in style. He has shown signs of becoming a top player.”

It should be mentioned that the PBSF president had hand-picked Humza at the national junior circuit and declared him a star in the making despite the presence of talented players like Mohammad Majid and Mohsin Amin.

Even Sajjad, who was beaten by Humza, praised the youngster by labelling him as the best young talent in the country.

“To me Humza is an extra-ordinary talent and is destined to make a name for himself. Among the junior players he is probably the best and will give a tough time to the seniors.”

Published in The Express Tribune, March 26^th, 2013.