Thaha bags second major title in seven days

 Champion Irshath Thaha of Moors SC

By M. Shamil Amit  

Man in form Irshath Thaha of Moors SC continued his winning streak when he bagged his second major snooker title within a period of seven days, following his Open Ranking Championship title win by clinching and retaining the 6-Red Snooker National Championship title.

He posted a five frames to one win against H.A.M. Rimzan of the YMCA in the final played at the Moors SC billiards table in Colombo.
Thaha prior to coming out victorious in the final secured a win by the same margin against club mate M. Musharaf in the semifinal encounter while Rimzan got the better of Ashiq Hussain of MSC also by the same winning margin.

Meanwhile in the district tournaments which was qualification for the national level tournament made O.T. Samith of Nuwara Eliya, M. Fauzan of Kandy, Musthaque Mohamed of Kegalle, Sajith Balaharuwa of Ratnapura, Mohamed Farhan of Galle and Mohamed Fahim of Colombo come out winners.

The championship conducted by the Billiards and Snooker Association and sponsored by Malship Group of Companies had a record participation of 239 cueists from the districts of Nuwara Eliya, Kandy, Galle, Ratnapura and Colombo which had the highest number of entries of 134 cueists.

Results:
Semi Finals – H.A.M. Rimzan (YMCA) beat Ashiq Hussain (MSC) 5-1 (45/0, 32/20, 3/34, 35/8, 45/25, 44/10)
Irshath Thaha (MSC) beat M. Musharaf (MSC) 5-1 (6/26, 44/8, 53/8, 67/1, 45/2, 51/9)
Final - Irshath Thaha (MSC) beat H.A.M. Rimzan (YMCA) 5/1 (40/10, 39/1, 72/0, 32/40, 60/1, 40/32).