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Himanshu Kukreti of UP

Pune, Jan 18: In the ongoing, Manisha National Billiards and Snooker Championship, eight cueists were qualified for the main draw of the junior snooker event. Making the most of it, five cueists moved ahead with easy wins over their respective opponents at PYC Hindu Gymkhana on Wednesday.Himanshu Kukreti of Uttar Pradesh knocked out his state player M. Arbas 65-10, 73-38, 66-18, 53-37, while Maharashtra’s Sparsh Pherwani prevailed over Jammu and Kashmir’s Vipin Mali 54-33, 13-56, 75-36, 74-42.
Sparsh who was suffering from mild illness, gave walkover to S Srikrishna in the sub-junior billiards round-robin format on Tuesday. He concentrated all his efforts on juniors and justified the decision with the win. Another qualifier Bhavneet Walia marched ahead with a 54-34, 64-21, 79-49 win over Rohit Choudhary of Jammu and Kashmir. He was joined by Shabit Sethi of Punjab and Abhinav Singh of Uttarakhand who prevailed over Muzammil Shaikh of Goa and Tushar Pankhania of Maharashtra respectively.
Meanwhile, other qualifiers Dhruv Arora of Haryana, Kreishh Gurbaxani and Samarth Gautam of UP got knocked out in the first round of the main draw.  Maharashtra’s ace cueist and junior snooker’s defending champion Ispreet Singh Chadha have withdrawn his name for the junior category due to medical reason. However, he will take part in the senior category, starting from January 20, said the officials. Meanwhile, second seed Aditya Bhalla of Delhi marched with easy win over Syed Abid of Telangana. Earlier, the prizes of sub-junior snooker and  junior billiards were given at the hands of former national basketball player and PYC basketball coach Suvarna Limaye and Gopika Kachare, national basketball player and basketball coach of Deccan Gymkhana.
Results: Junior Snooker (Rd-1) Vishws Mangla (HAR) bt Sheikh Ahmad (KAR) 55-18, 66-57, 59-47; Hritik Jain (MP) bt Rohan Sahai (MH) 66-15, 70-35, 117 (53, 64) – 01; Loucki Pathare (MH) bt Harshit Choudhary (UTK) 54-11, 65-39, 68-13; Tridib Deka (ASM) bt Saidep (TLGN) 51-31, 78-71, 64-02; Shabit Sethi (PUB) bt Muzzarmil Shaikh (GOA) 69-12, 72-26, 49-56, 80-33; Kreishh Gurbaxani (MH) lost to Shubham Arora (DLI) 49-14, 19-88, 67-45, 46-44; Shubham Sandhu (PUB) bt Soubhagya Behra (ORI) 69-28, 64-32, 67-40; Ashutosh Padhy (ORI) bt Raghav Aggarwal (DEL) 65-17, 41-56, 66-34, 53-27; Abhinav Singh (UKD) bt Tushar Pankhania (MH) 14-55, 63-53, 69-54, 55-50; Ashutosh Srivastava (UP) lost to Adarsh Varma 26-51, 32-63, 32-59; G Akhil (AP) bt Rakesh Barik (ORI) 70-31, 54-11, 58-05; Aman Nagpal (UKD) bt Dhruv Arora (HAR) 72-37, 70-30, 67-60; Himanshu Kukreti (UP) bt M. Arbas (UP) 65-10, 73-38, 66-18, 53-37; Sparsh Pherwani (MH) bt Vipan Mali (JK) 54-33, 13-56, 75-36, 74-42; Bhavneet Walia (PUB) bt Rohit Choudhary (JK) 54-34, 64-21, 79-49;