BHUBANESWAR 23-Feb-2014 213
Odisha sensation Ashutosh Padhy clinched a glorious treble by adding the junior snooker crown to the sub-junior billiards and snooker titles in the National Billiards and Snooker Championship at Lucknow today.
Bhubaneswar lad Ashutosh captured his maiden junior snooker title, winning all three of his semifinal league matches against junior billiards champion Dhvaj Haria, Ishpreet S Chadha and Sahil Nayyar. With his junior title triumph, Ashutosh has qualified to represent India in the Asian Under-21 Snooker Championship to be held in Chandigarh April 4 to 10 and also in the World U-21 Snooker Championship to be held in Russia later this year.
Ashutosh earlier regained the billiards title after a gap of three years, beating Arjun Mehta (Karnataka) in the one-hour-long final, 251-121. He retained his snooker title, outplaying Johnson Narsidani (Gujarat) 3-0 in the summit clash.
Ashutosh had claimed his previous billiards title in the 6th edition of the National Sub-junior Championship at Pune in August, 2010. Overall, he now has six National titles in his kitty.
Son of BJP leader and former minister Surama Padhy, Ashutosh put up modest performance in his maiden senior national billiards championship, winning two and losing three league matches in Group-D.
