Caption: Ahmad Taufiq Murni takes a shot while teammate Lim Wei Kok looks during the quarter-final of the men's 9-ball doubles against Singapore in the 28th SEA Games at the OCBC Arena Hall 4. Picture: Yee Chun Leong
Ak Fauzi Pg Salleh
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
TOP ranked Ahmad Taufiq Murni will be among the country's best cueists competing at the 1st Zain 9-Ball Pool Open Championship this month.
Taufiq will be joined by other national cueists such as Lim Wei Kok, Pg Anak Hj Abdul Awadi ZH Pg Anak Hj Latifuddin and Hj Md Khairuddin Hj Hasnan for the May 18-21 competition.
He will head into this tournament with good form coming off winning both the Brunei Snooker Championship 2017 and Brunei Cue Sports Association (BCSA) National 9-Ball Ranking Challenge Grand Final 2016 early this year.
He defeated Lim Wei Kok 13-3 in the final of BCSA National 9-Ball Ranking Challenge Grand Final 2016 in February and beat Teo Chee Soon 3-2 (53-16, 46-69, 63-32, 22-41, 71-12) in the final of the Brunei Snooker Championship 2017 to complete a double the following month.
In an interview with BruSports recently, tournament organiser Pg Md Faiq Hafizuddin Pg Hj Jalaludin said that some 30 cueists from all over the country including those from neighbouring countries such as Sarawak and Sabah have confirmed their participation for the three-day tournament.
"So far the response is quite good, we got one cueist from Sabah and two from Sarawak registered for the event," said Pg Md Faiq.
"Taufiq, Lim Wei Kok and the other members of the national team will be participating in this match too, so the standard will be quite high and it will be very interesting to watch,"
"We got a good number of people registering for the past couple of weeks and there is still time for the others who haven't registered to do so," he added.
Any interested parties can obtain and then submit the completed registration form with $30 fee to the competition venue, Master Alim in Kiulap, before May 12.
Organised by Master Alim Pool, the champion will receive a cash prize of $1000 and trophy.
The tournament will be competed in double knock-out format in the qualifying round and single elimination from the top-16 onwards.
