Chennai, July 8
Anupama Ramachandran received a warm welcome at the Chennai airport after she clinched a gold medal in the Senior Asian Women's Snooker Tournament held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Anupama secured the top finish by defeating Panchaya Channoi of Thailand 3-1 to win the Asian title.
After returning to Chennai, Anupama expressed her delight in her triumph because of the magnitude of the competition.
"I won the gold medal at the Asian Snooker Championship held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from the 1-5 July. I'm very happy to have won this because it was a tournament that was conducted in a knockout end-league format. The tournament had countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, India, Hong Kong and Thailand," Anupama told ANI, after landing in Chennai.
In her 3-1 triumph, Anupama didn't get off to a desired start against her rival. She initially trailed by 1-0 but bounced back to seal a 3-1 win.
Anupama secured her place in the final by getting the better of her fellow Indian cueist Keerthana Pandian 3-0 in the semi-finals.
Anupama believes that last year her triumph IBSF six-star championship in Doha proved to be a major confidence booster for her.
"Last year, I won a silver medal at the IBSF six-star championship in Doha. It was a confidence boost for me because it was my first medal in a senior category," Anupama added.
While Anupama secured the gold medal in the women's category, ace Indian cueist Pankaj Advani fell short in his quest to secure a hat-trick of titles at the 2024 Asian Billiards Championship after going down against his fellow opponent from India, Dhruv Sitwala, 2-5 in the final round.
Dhruv set the tone for the match with an impressive start, scoring 103 points while Pankaj struggled to get on the board. He continued to dominate the game and secure the title.