Visually-impaired Toba upsets Akbar in national event

Cueist overcomes loss of vision in one eye to win snooker championship.

KARACHI: Mohammad Asif Toba emerged as the new face of the Jubilee Insurance 39th National Snooker Championship on Monday, becoming a unique icon due to his impaired vision in a game that requires good eyesight.

The cueist lost sight in one eye in an early part of his life and since then has been working hard to overcome the odds and compete with the best cueists.

Toba, who crashed out of the circuit last year, defeated defending champion Hamza Akbar 8-5 in the final played at the Karachi Gymkhana.

“Becoming the national champion is an overwhelming achievement. I was out of the circuit last year and had to play qualifiers this time around,” Toba told The Express Tribune.

“My next aim is to do well in international championships as nothing is better than doing well for your country.”

It was a see-saw battle for the most part of the match with both opponents trying to get the better of the other. Hamza drew first blood but Toba hit back to draw parity and the same sequence followed in next two frames.

But with the score at 2-2, Hamza upped the ante to race to a comfortable 4-2 lead only to see Toba improve his gameplay when it was most needed as he overturned the tables with a 6-4 lead.

Hamza won the next frame to make it 6-5 but that was the most he could do as Toba won the next two consecutive frames to triumph with a scoreline of 38-73(73), 59-49, 08-103, 80-49, 32-59, 23-58, 60-48, 64-50, 49-14, 90-18(64), 44-62, 76-07 and 58-15.

When asked about his eyesight problem, Toba confirmed that he has been playing with one eye.

“It’s true that one of my eyes stop working a long time back due to an acute illness. It could have been a setback for anyone but I was determined to make up for the loss by working harder than others,” stated Toba.

“I doubled my practice in order to compete with people with normal vision. The extra hours I put into practice help me improve my hand and eye coordination.”

Toba advised the youngsters that they must not lose hope even if they are deprived physically and should continue to work hard in order to compete with normal people.

“If you have the will, you can compete against anyone and I had that will. I am thankful to my master Shahid who supported me throughout the career so far,” he concluded.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 11^th, 2014.

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