Strokes of success

Ambitious Bahraini snooker star Habib Sabah Habib is aiming for golden glory after becoming the first Arab to secure a silver in a world championship in Malaysia.

With this victory, Habib has broken his past record of being the first player from the Middle East to win a bronze in the Snooker World Championships in Holland in 2004.

The 39-year-old, who has been playing the game since the age of 12, has returned from competing in the popular World 6-Red Snooker Championship that featured 68 internationally acclaimed players.

“While I didn’t win the gold, I am still extremely proud to have brought home a silver as I am now the first Arab to reach a final of a snooker world championship,” said Habib, from Isa Town.

“I’ve gotten a bronze and then a silver. My goal is and always will be to win the gold in the World Championship.”

For the uninitiated, in snooker there are 15 red and six coloured balls and one cue ball. The player has to pot a red first, then a colour, and again a red, and so on. At the end of the frame, the player with the most points wins.

Each red carries one point, yellow two, green three, brown four, blue five, pink six and black seven. The six coloured balls are put back on the table but not the reds. When the reds are over, the other colours are potted in the ascending order of the value of their points.

This championship, however, is a six-red snooker tournament, played with the six colour balls and six reds.

Habib had lost to Iraqi contender Firas Kamel 4-3 and defeated both Irish player James Darcy and Indian Brijish Damani 4-1 to qualify at the top of his group to make it on to the knock out stage. He then beat defending champion Laxman Rawat from India 4-1 and German Richard Wienold 4-3.

In the quarterfinal, he defeated Pakistani player Babar Masih 5-4 in what, he said, was the toughest game in the championship.

He beat Malaysian Thor Leong in the semi-final 5-4 and in the final, lost 5-1 to Shrikrishna.

“It was a great experience,” added Habib who is now competing in the Arab Championship in Bahrain, which ends on Friday. He will then participate in the West Asian Championship that starts in Bahrain on Saturday (October 22) and ends on October 29. He will then fly out to Türkiye in the first week of November to compete in the World Championships.

Habib is looking forward to the competition and hopes to add more medals and trophies to his current collection.

He was the first player from the Middle East and Arab world to win a bronze in the Snooker Asian Championships in Jordan in 2011, and in the same year, became an Arab Games gold medallist.

He has also achieved 147 break (points) in an official snooker match, the bronze in a Thailand Masters Snooker Championship, 20 medals in championships across the region of which five are gold, nine silver and six bronze and 17 medals in Arab championships of which five are gold, three silver and nine bronze.

His most recent achievements include golds in the Arab Championship in 2019 and again in 2022 in Egypt.

He also represented the kingdom in the World Games in the US in July this year after being the only Bahraini to qualify for the snooker category. He achieved that by winning the West Asian Snooker Championship, the Arab Snooker Championship and reaching the quarterfinals of both the Asian and World Championships.

Habib thanked the Supreme Council for Youth and Sports first deputy chairman, General Sports Authority (GSA) chairman and Bahrain Olympic Committee (BOC) president Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa for his unlimited support, as well as the BOC and the GSA.

He also appreciated all the support that he received from Bahrain Billiards, Snooker and Darts Federation president Munther Albasri, and his family and friends.

For details, follow @habib_sabah_147 on Instagram.