Renthlei clinches first snooker title for Mizoram

CHENNAI: Mizoram's Lalrina Renthlei on Wednesday created history by becoming the first National champion in any form of cue sports from his state as the 20-year-old clinched the Junior Snooker title, winning two of the three semi-final league matches.
Renthlei from Aizwal won the title on the countback after being tied with ML Lakshman (Karnataka) and Himanshu Jain (Andhra) -- all with two wins each.
Jain and Lakshman finished second and third respectively, while Mundir Sherazi from Karnataka, who lost all his three outings, came distant fourth.
Unheralded Renthlei had been an irregular participant in national events during the last couple of years and his earlier biggest win has been a third place finish in the 9-ball national championship and fifth in 8-ball this year.
"This is my happiest moment and although I didn't play all that well, may be 60 per cent of my potential, I am very pleased that I managed to win my first title," said Renthlei, a second year Commerce student of Govt College in Aizwal.
"I dedicate this win to my father who passed away in 2004 and coach Mukesh Rehani (who expired this year) who toughened me mentally when he visited Mizoram for two weeks."
Making his exit at the early stages of Pune Nationals last year, Renthlei had performed well in the senior section, making it to the round of 32 with a loss to Karnataka's IH Manudev.
Renthlei took the snooker seriously after giving up a promising career in basketball.
In the senior billiards section matches this morning, Asian champion and reigning national billiards champion Alok Kumar (PSPB) suffered a shock defeat against Shankar Rao (Andhra).
However, Alok made amends for his loss and won the next league match in the afternoon against Anshul Mittal (Haryana).
"In the 100-up format, you cannot take anything for granted. Anybody can win on a given day and 9 am was a bit early in the day for me. Also, in the past couple of months, after winning the Asian title, I have been playing a lot of pool and that probably affected my billiards game. I need to improve a lot," said Alok.
The results: Junior Boys snooker (s-f league): ML Lakshman (Kar) bt Mundir Sherazi (Kar) 3-2; Lalrina Renthlei (Miz) bt Mundir Sherazi (Kar) 3-1; Himanshu Jain (AP) bt Lakshman 3-0; Renthlei bt Jain 3-1; Jain bt Sherazi 3-2; Lakshman bt Renthlei 3-2.
Senior billiards (preliminary league): Group A: I.V.Rajiv(ap) bt M.S.Reddy (rlys) 53-101, 101-73, 102-19,102-37, Pankaj Advani (pspb) bt Vishal Madan(mah) 46-100,101-68,102-0,100-0.
Group B: Simhachallam (rlys) bt Anshul mittal (har) 101-34,103-43,101-28; Shanker rao (AP) bt Alok Kumar(pspb) 3-1, 101-83, 39-101, 100-18,100-81.
Group C: Siddarth pariekh(rlys) bt sankeet Saurabh (bho) 102-28,101-86,101-90; Geet sethi (guj) bt D.Bhuvaneshwaran (tn) 101-27,103-0,102-02.
Group D: Dhruv Sitwala (pspb) bt Akram khan(wb) 100-02, 102-67, 67-101, 100-52.
Group E: Saurav Kothari (pspb) bt Abhishek Saini(har) 100-15,102-16,101-0, Rupesh Shah(pspb) bt Aditya Aarwal(rlys)100-58,102-87,100-0.