KARACHI: Playing in the presence of celebrities and top cueists, promising Hamza Akbar gave a stunning performance by clinching an 8-4 victory over Shahram Changezi in the best of 15 frames final to recapture the title in the 40th National Snooker Championship at hotel Movenpick on Monday.

Making his third consecutive appearance, youthful Hamza shrugged off the challenge posed by his opponent to post an incredible victory. The scores were 81-26, 68-47, 40-63, 5-68, 50-64, 101-20, 97-27, 58-72, 66-24, 78-32, 64-72, 68-28. The final lasted for five-and-a-half hour including 90-minute break.

In the run up to the final, Hamza inflicted 5-2 defeat on Mohammad Asif Toba in pre quarter-final, sent Mohammad Imran packing 5-3 in quarters and coasted to 6-3 victory over Mohammad Sajjad in the semis after finishing runner-up in group D.

On the other hand, Shahram carved out 5-1 victory over Hunain Amir in pre quarter-final, defeated wildcard Babar Masih 5-3 in quarters and won 6-5 over Mohammad Asif in semis He also finished second in group E.

“I’m indebted to Allah for giving me enough courage and strength to regain the national title after a gap of one year,” the Faisalabad-based player told Dawn after the final.

He attributed the triumph to his coach Bilal Mughal whose regular motivation over the phone guided him win the title for a second time. He also had a word of praise for senior players including Asif, Sajjad, Shahid Aftab, Mohammad Umer and the games controlling body for their support.

For Islamabad-based Shahram, who is bronze medallist of Guanz­ghou Asian Games snooker team event together with Imran Shehzad and Sohail Shehzad, it was a big leap.

“Lack of sufficient practice deprived me to win elusive national title,” Shahram, 31, who played first final of the national snooker championship, told Dawn.

Both the finalists have qualified to represent the country in the 31st Asian Snooker Championship being held at Malaysia from April 21 to 30 and couple of other events.

The final between the two cueists was a seesaw until four-all but from then onwards, there was no stopping for Hamza who raced to win the next four frames to complete the rout.

Hamza received a winning purse of Rs80,000 and glittering trophy from the chief guest, managing director of Jubilee Insurance, Tahir Ahmed. Also present on the occasion were guests of honour Commissioner Karachi Shoaib Ahmad Siddiqui, squash legend Jahangir Khan, Pakistan Billiards and Snooker Federation president Alamgir Shaikh, secretary Munawwar Shaikh, international referee Shabbir Daruwala, Arif Tahirbhoy and Naveed Kapadia.

The commissioner awarded runner-up trophy and cash prize of Rs50,000 to Shahram. Sajjed and Sultan Mohammad received Rs 5,000 apiece for highest break of 131. The former mustered the break against Mahmood Khan while the latter emulated it against Uzair Aziz.

As many as 12 century breaks were recorded during the event.

Published in Dawn, February 10th, 2015

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