BHUBANESWAR 23-Jul-2011 312
Orissa school boy Ashutosh Padhy once again proved that players from small city like Bhubaneswar can excel in high-profile sports such as billiards and snooker by emerging triumphant in the 7th Sub-junior National Snooker Championship at Chennai yesterday.
Ashutosh, a ninth standard student of Delhi Public School, Kalinga, achieved the feat in style, outplaying defending champion Dhvaj Haria of Gujarat 2-0 (59-42, 55-28) in the summit clash. With a record 95 entrants in fray for honours, the 14-year-old Ashutosh came up with superb break of 54 in the second frame to beat Ishpreet Singh of Maharashtra 55-12, 77-35 in the best of three frames semi-final after disposing off Vikrant Kapoor of Punjab with a first frame break of 50 in the quarterfinal. He defeated Vikrant 88-11 68-44.
Ashutosh, however, missed the chance to clinch a double by failing to defend his sub-junior National billiards title two days ago. He crashed out in the quarterfinals, losing to Utsav Ramani of Gujarat 204-231. Orissa state champion Ashutosh, who got a bye in the first round, reached the quarterfinals comfortably, defeating S Arun (Tamil Nadu) 297-47 and Abhinav Kripalu (Maharashtra) 253-152.
Orissa state sub-junior snooker champion and billiards runner-up, experienced mixed luck in the Chennai Nationals, losing to Haryana`s Hasneet Singh 115-171 in billiards first round and to Ishpreet Singh 20-55, 56-21, 46-75 in snooker quarterfinals.
