Ashutosh Padhy wins sub-junior national billiards title

Orissa's Ashutosh Padhy defeated Arjun Mehta of Karnataka to lift the sub-junior billiards title at the Manisha Billiards and Snooker Nationals, here today.

Padhy showed no mercy to Mehta while crushing him 251-121 in the 60-minute final.

He had an initial break of 59, which helped him to retain decent lead throughout the match.

"It was like a dream come true for me," Ashutosh said after his win.

"In the final, I didn't want my rival even to think about a comeback once I took a handsome lead," he added.

Earlier in the day, Padhy had scored a thrilling 251-203 win against M L Laxman also of Karnataka in the semi-final, while Mehta had outplayed defending champion Ishpreet Chadha of Maharashtra 186-168 in the other last-four game.
 

In snooker, young cueist Shobhit Chandra of Lucknow stormed into the semifinals, defeating Rohan Sahani of Madhya Pradesh 2-1.

Joining him in the semi-finals were Ashutosh Padhy, Uttar Pradesh's Mandeep Singh and Johnson Narsidani Gujarat.

Padhy beat UP's Mark Menezes 2-1 while Mandeep Singh knocked out Lalit Agarwal of Delhi and Johnson brushed aside M D Hussain of MP.

The State Bank of India powered event is being organised by the Uttar Pradesh Billiards and Snooker Association.