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BAHRAINI snooker star Habib Sabah Habib is on a roll, having won gold in all three competitions in the West Asian Billiard and Snooker Championship.
The event, held at the Bahrain Billiards, Snooker and Darts Federation in Manama from October 23 to 29, featured participants from more than 10 countries fighting for titles, trophies and triumphs.
Habib, 39, who won two gold in the championship last year in the Snooker Singles (15 red) and Snooker Team categories, hit the trifecta this year, winning in both categories as well as in the Snooker Singles (6 red). He won in the team competition as well, with Khalil Ebrahim.
“This was such a great achievement and thanks to God, I won all three this year,” said Habib who has been playing the game since the age of 12.
“I’m also excited because I made the highest break possible in a single frame of snooker called the ‘147’ or ‘maximum’.”
That is when a player compiles a maximum break by potting all 15 reds with 15 blacks for 120 points, followed by all six colours for a further 27 points.
“I’ve been told it is the first and the only maximum break in the tournament history,” he added.
Habib is 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 taken home the bronze in a Thailand Masters Snooker Championship. He won 20 medals in events across the region of which five are gold, nine silver and six bronze; and 17 medals in Arab championships including five gold, three silver and nine bronze.
His most recent accomplishments 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 - the only Bahraini to qualify in 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.
