World Junior Snooker Championship kicks off in Goa

Sixty-six contestants, representing 25 countries, will be seen in action during the 20th World Junior Snooker Championship, being held here.

Vasco-Da-Gama (Goa), Aug 23 : Sixty-six contestants, representing 25 countries, will be seen in action during the 20th World Junior Snooker Championship, being held here.

The nine-day Under-21 Championship organised by the International Billiard and Snooker Federation (IBSF), has a separate section for women for the first time.

"This is actually a major event in the calendar of snooker around the world because this is actually the stepping stone for any young player. Most of the top players, who win this championship, go on to play the professional circuit in England," said Devendra Joshi, Joint Secretary of Billiards and Snooker Association of Maharashtra.

China, England, Northern Ireland, Wales and Thailand are the strong contenders at the championships, which will continue till August 31.

The event is being held for the third time in India. The previous two editions of the championships in India were held in Bangalore.

Hosts India are lowly rated, though it has produced legendary players like Wilson Jones and Michael Ferreira and champions like Geet Sethi and Pankaj Advani.

Bahrain hosted the event in 2005, where the Chinese players bagged all the top three positions.

Snooker, a 'cue sport', was popular amongst the British in colonial India. The first Professional World Championship was held in 1927 with the help of Joe Davis, an Englishman, who dominated the game till 1946.

The game won its popularity in 1969, with the help of the BBC, which launched a programme called 'Pot Black.' The first championship was put on television in 1976.

ANI