KARACHI: Punjab’s Imran Shahzad, who slipped to second place and occupied it for a brief period, recaptured top slot in the latest national rankings released by the Pakistan Billiards and Snooker Association (PBSA) on Friday.
The rankings are based on the performance of cueists in the third NBP ranking snooker championship which concluded at Karachi Club on July 27.
Imran, 36, losing finalist of this year’s national snooker championship to Shahid Aftab, thrashed Sindh’s Sohail Shahzad 8-0 in the NBP final to surge on the top spot.
Imran succeeded national champion Shahid who gave lack lusture performance and fallen to 10th place.
Following Imran is Sohail Shahzad who jumped three places to secure second position which he had occupied earlier also.
As per PBSA decision, former Asian No 2 Mohammad Sajjad of Punjab, who had to skip the event due to international committments abroad, has retained third place.
Mohammad Asif of Punjab leaped four places to claim fourth spot.
The following four places have been claimed by Sindh cueists – Sultan Mohammad, Abdul Sattar, Naveen Perwani and Umair Alam.
It is after a long time that Sindh has earned a lion’s share in the top eight national rankings.
Former world amateur snooker champion Mohammad Yousuf has gone two places down to claim 12th position. Top eight: 1-Imran Shahzad (Punjab); 2-Sohail Shahzad (Sindh); 3-Mohammad Sajjad (Punjab); 4-Mohammad Asif (Punjab); 5-Sultan Mohammad (Sindh); 6-Abdul Sattar (Sindh); 7-Naveen Perwani (Sindh); 8-Umair Alam (Sindh).
