Cueists leave for China with an aim to double medals tally

The 17-member Indian cuesports squad will leave for China on Tuesday.

New Delhi: The 17-member Indian cuesports squad, comprising of last edition`s gold medallist Pankaj

Advani and legendary Geet Sethi, will leave for China in the wee hours on Tuesday to participate in the 16th Asian Games to be held in Guangzhou from November 12 to 27. The 10 men and seven women team, accompanied by three coaches -- Sanjay Sawant (snooker), Mukesh Rehani (pool), Manoj Kothari (billiards) and team manager Ravi Tandon -- assembled here for an interaction with the media before leaving for the quadrennial event. Advani, who won the gold medal in Billiards singles category in 2006 Doha Games and Sethi, who along with Ashok Shandilya, won the bronze in the billiards doubles event, exuded confidence of a good show by the Indian cueists in China and said the contingent will look to double its medal count this year. In the Doha Games, apart from Advani and Sethi, Shandilya had also won a silver in Billiards singles while in the Snooker team event, the country had won a bronze medal. "I am looking forward to another gold medal this time in Billiards and it is going to be an exciting event as it is the second biggest event after Olympics," said Advani. "I want to shrugg off my losing streak. I know I can`t win always but I am hoping to do well this time and hope India wins five medal. Our preparation is good and we have a lovely blend of youth and experience," he added. In the last three months beginning August, most of the men`s players, part of the squad for the Ghungzhou Games, featured in the series of tournaments including IBSF World Billiards Championship in Pune, Indian National Billiards and Snooker Championship, also in Pune, and more recently in the World Professional Billiards Championship in Leeds, UK. The Indian cueists also sweat it out at the final conditioning camp in Bangalore that began on October 20, with two international coaches England`s Derek Del Hill (snooker) and Filipino Jorge C Dacer (pool), indulging in some rigorous training schedule. The coaches were roped in for a fortnight by the Billiards and Snooker Federation of India to brighten country`s medal prospects in the snooker and pool disciplines respectively. "The event will take place from November 13 to 21 and I am confident we will win medals in all the four disciplines. There has been a great change in the technique of the ladies players and I hope they will also add to the medal tally," said Tandon, also the member of the Asian Games selection committee. Sethi feels the just-concluded World professional championship will hold the Indian cueists in good stead and said the foreign coaches has helped the team to prepare very well for the Asiad. "This time is in great shape after the conditioning camp in Bangalore and arrival of international coaches also helped us a lot and we are confident of performing well against China, UAE and other counterparts and I hope India doubles its medal tally this year," said Sethi. The BSFI had a series of selection camps since April before naming the squad for the quadrennial event. The squad: Men: Billiards singles: Pankaj Advani, Geet Sethi; Snooker singles: P Advani, Aditya Mehta; Snooker team: A Mehta, Brijesh Damani, Yasin Merchant; 8-ball pool singles: Sumit Talwar, Alok Kumar; 9-ball pool singles: A Kumar, Manan Chandra; Carom 3-cushion singles: Dharminder Lilly, Vijay Goel. Women: 6-reds snooker singles: Vidya Pillai, Chitra Magimairaj; 6-red snooker team: Vidya P, Chitra M, Anuja Chandra; 8-ball pool singles: Indira Gowda, Neeta Sanghvi; 9-ball pool singles: Meenal Thakur, Neena Praveen. PTI