India’s Siddharth Parikh clinched the billiards gold medal in the inaugural Asian Billiards Sports 2016. The Mumbai-based cueist Parikh, ranked no. 3 in the world, was on a roll and emerged a comfortable 4-2 winner against Aung Htay of Myanmar 4-2 in the final of the billiards 100up format, at Al-Fujairah, UAE.
Siddharth Parikh
The Indian Railway and P.J. Hindu Gymkhana player, Parikh who had not dropped a single frame till the semi-final round, started poorly losing the first two frames rather tamely against Htay in the summit clash. But, showing great resilience and solid fight qualities, he bounced back in grand fashion and with the help of steady beaks of 88 (3rd frame), 63 (5th) and 61 (6th), went on to win the next four frames on the trot to complete a satisfying 26-100, 02-100(90), 100(88)-21, 100-47, 100(63)-60, 100(61)-60 victory. Htay’s best effort was a run of 90 in the second frame.
Siddharth Parikh with prize
The India No. 2 ranked Parikh had earlier in the semi-finals defeated South Korea’s Hwang Chulho 4-0 (100(62)-15, 100(90)-26, 100(55)-82, 100(78)-24), while Htay overcame India No.1 Sourav Kothari 4-1 (63-100(65), 100-88(57), 100(100)-22, 100(55)-00, 100(92)-57) in the other semi-final encounter. Both Chulho and Kothari had to settle for the bronze.
Earlier this year, Parikh had won the bronze medal at the Asian Billiards Championship 2016 in Colombo. Parikh’s Hindu Gym teammate Dhruv Sitwala won the gold to retain his crown.
The other medal winners for India in UAE were, Kamal Chawla bronze in 6Red Men, In 6Red Women, Vidya Pillai won silver while Amee Kamani and Arantxa Sanchis, both claimed bronze. In Team Snooker event, the Indian trio of Manan Chandra, Sundeep Gulati and Ishpreet Chadha settled for bronze.