Gilchrist masterclass denies Kothari a double

Reigning world champion Sourav Kothari was denied a back-to-back title when veteran Peter Gilchrist won the 2019 Pacific International Billiards Championship with a commanding display here Friday. Kolkata cueist Kothari had been on a roll winning the International Reventon Classic Snooker championship, a triple crown event of Australia and thereafter went on to display some outstanding billiards en-route the final.

But in the final, the former multiple times world billiards champion from Singapore was at his best to tame the Indian cueist 1500-706. The seasoned campaigner and world record holder of highest billiards break of 1346 under modern rules, Gilchrist avenged his 2018 WBL World Billiards Championship defeat in the finals in Leeds.

In the race to 1500 points final, Kothari drew the first blood with a magnificent break of 290 points showing early promise of a great battle ahead. However, unperturbed by the initial blow by Kothari, Gilchrist in his characteristic style parked himself at the top of the table and kept on scoring point after point displaying debonair billiards.

After reaching 750 points at the interval, Gilchrist led Kothari by 400 points with consistent onslaught of 211, 242 and 252. On resumption, the script did not change as knowing well the capability of Kothari to come back to the game anytime, Gilchrist brought in more compactness and rose his game to optimum level and came very near to the target with useful runs of 124, 122, 96. A break of 80 followed by a well compiled 175 was too little too late for Kothari as Gilchrist completed the proceedings with another break of 200 points.

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