34th KP Open Snooker Championship Begins

PESHAWAR, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 19th Nov, 2022 ) :The 34th KP Open Snooker Championship got underway here at Snooker Club on Main GT Road on Saturday wherein a total of 64 players are competing from all across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

Director Finance in the Directorate General sports Amjad Aqbal was the chief guest on this occasion who formally inaugurated the Championship, which is the oldest one in the city. Associate Secretary Alam Khan, Muhammad Imad, Muhammad Farooq and other officials and champion players were present.

In the Championship, the winners of 7 divisions and districts and merged districts are participating in the final round.

The number of players in the final round is 64. The best four players will participate in the Championship to be held next month.

In his address to the gathering, President KP Snooker and Billiard Association Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Zulfikar Butt requested the DG Sports for restoration of the Snooker Academy in Peshawar Sports Complex. He said the Academy was closed down three-years earlier because of the construction work and despite completion of the construction work in Peshawar Sports Complex, the Academy was not restored. He said the academy is very important, a Sports board's coach should also be appointed for the Academy.

Zulfiqar Butt said that the Academy had been contributing lot in promoting snooker in the country.

He said that through the league, around 32 players would qualify for the final round. He said that the effort were to bring forward only the best players. Two players will be sent for the national competitions and after that they will have the World Championship for which the team will be selected from the national competitions, he added.

Syed Aqil Shah and DG Sports Khalid Khan will be the chief guests who will distribute the prizes among the players at the final and prize distribution ceremony. He said that Muhammad Salman of Dera Ismail Khan, Saud Khan of Pir Payai and Owais of Mansehra were also performing well in these competitions. Saud Khan is also the champion of last year while Owais of Mansehra got the trophy in Abbottabad and is an U19 player, he told.

He expressed the hope that the Academy would be restored soon. It is time to be determined and the best snooker players will be fully supported to participate in foreign competitions and they will be provided with other facilities including air tickets, he added.

Later, chief guest Director Finance Amjad Iqbal, KP Sports Writers Association President Asim Shiraz and Shakeel-ur-Rahman were also awarded with souvenirs.