7th Asian Billiards and 9th U-21 Asian Snooker Championships open in Myanmar

YANGON, April 5 (Xinhua) -- The 7th Asian Billiards and 9th U-21 Asian Snooker Championships kicked off at Kandawgyi Palace Hotel here Saturday, with the participation of 55 players, including defending and four other former world billiards champions, from 14 countries.

The opening ceremony of the 8-day championships, the second of its kind hosted by Myanmar, was attended by Myanmar Sports Minister and Chairman of Myanmar Olympic Committee Brigadier-General Thura Aye Myint and Secreatry General of Asian Confederation of Billiards Sports Syed Mahboob.

A total of 55 players, including 25 billiards players and 30 snooker players, from 14 countries -- China, India, Iraq, Iran, Malaysia, host Myanmar, Pakistan, Qatar, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, United Arab Emirates and Vietnam -- will takepart in the continental championships, scheduled on April 5-12.

Five billiards players from host Myanmar, three players each from India and Singapore and two each from Iran, South Korea, Malaysia, Qatar, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam will compete in the 7th Asian Billiards championship, while five snooker players from Myanmar, three each from China, India, Iran, Pakistan and Thailand and two each from Iraq, South Korea, Qatar, Malaysia and United Arab Emirates will take part in the 9th U-21 Asian Snooker Championship.

The selected Myanmar billiards players are Kyaw Oo, Aung Htay, Aung San Oo, Nay Thway Oo and Min Si Thu Tun. Kyaw Oo, who is Myanmar's top billiard player, grabbed the billiards doubles title at the 24th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Thailand in December 2007 with compatriot Aung San Oo the second consecutive time, and he also finished third at the 36th World Billiards Championship in Singapore in September the same year.

Myanmar is one of the billiards powerhouses of Asia, having a long history of good results in international billiards tournaments.

Aung San Oo triumphed in the 2006 Asian Billiards Championship and Aung Htay was last year's Asian billirads bronze medalist.

Myanmar's major opponents will be competitors from India, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam as they have some world class players -- Peter Gilchrist (Singapore), Geet Sethi and Pankaj Advani (India), Praprut Chaithanasakun (Thailand) and Nguyen ThanhBinh (Vietnam) -- who have won world champion titles in recent years and India appears to be the toughest opponent, said Kyaw Oo last month, adding that "we are used to competing with them and I believe we can achieve some good results at the tournament".

At the World Billiards Championship in Singapore last year, Kyaw Oo beat Pankaj Advani, former world champion of India, in the knockout stage and Peter Gilchrist, defending Asian Billiards Champion and former world billiards champion, in the quarter finals, while Nay Thway Oo also defeated Peter Gilchrist.

Myanmar hosted such event for the first time at Asia Plaza Hotel here in March 2003 participated by seven Asian countries.

The Myanmar snooker team will make its debut in the U-21 Asian championship. The selected Myanmar snooker players who will compete in the championship are Naing Lin Thu, Hein Lwin Moe, Win Khine, Ye Zaw Htut and Zaw Win Cho.

The Myanmar Billiards and Snooker Federation, which was founded in April 1996, has got 16 medals -- three gold, seven silver and six bronze -- from the international competitions from 1997 to 2007, grabbing one bronze from World Championship, one gold, one silver and three bronzes from Asian Billiards Championships, two silvers and one bronze from Asian Games and two golds, four silvers and one bronze from SEA Games.