JOIN USFor Pankaj Advani and Peter Gilchrist, this IBSF World Billiards Championship is a chance to strengthen their legacy. For Asian champions like Sourav Kothari, Dhruv Sitwala and Alok Kumar, this is an opportunity to scale a new high. For bubbly Iranian Soheil Vahedi, the newly crowned IBSF World Snooker champion, it’s a chance to further enhance his snooker skills.
“I have just started learning billiards actually and I have got no chance here,” the 28-year-old Vahedi admitted. “I just came here to learn from the best players like Pankaj (Advani) and Peter (Gilchrist). I just came here to learn and in another 3-4 years, I will get my chance, maybe getting through to the last-eight stage or something. I don’t expect anything before that.
“I started playing billiards just 2-3 months ago when Manoj Kothari came to our country (around 10 years ago as a snooker coach). He suggested that I play billiards. We didn’t understand the game then and also didn't realise the importance of it. But now I play better snooker than I used to, thanks to billiards. I realised how important billiards is especially when I play safety in snooker. In billiards, you learn to control all three balls. I play billiards to learn to control and remind myself of how important controlling the object ball is. Billiards also helps me improve my cue action and the follow through,” said Vahedi, who learnt the game at the age of 14 from his father.
While Vahedi may be a total novice in billiards, he’s slowly evolving into a big snooker player. Apart from winning the world championship last month, he also won the IBSF World Snooker Team Championship with compatriot Amir Sarkhosh earlier this year. High on confidence, Vahedi, who aspired to become a football goalkeeper but gave up his ambition owing to family problems, now wants to make it count on the professional snooker circuit, a ticket that he earned in Doha (World Championship).
“No matter how difficult professional snooker is, I’m going to take it. All my life, I've dreamt of playing on the professional circuit and doing well there. The Iranian association is trying their best to support me financially. Some of my friends told me they will find sponsors otherwise I will have to fund myself. If I have to, I will spend all my savings. I don't care about money because life doesn’t mean money to me. It’s what you achieve and how you fulfil your dreams,” added Vahedi.