KARACHI, Feb 3: Last year’s runner-up Mohammad Majid Ali is likely to dominate Jubilee Insurance fifth national junior under-21 snooker championship when it cues off at hotel Sheraton on Monday.

Majid, who hails from Punjab, lost to province-mate Hunain Aamir 2-5 in the final last year. The latter is not defending his crown and had skipped the Punjab Cup, criterion for the event, due to his examination.

If one goes by the track record, Majid has emerged as the strong candidate to win his maiden national junior crown.

Majid made his international debut in the Asian under-21 snooker championship held at Goa, India, last year where he lost in the last-16 (pre quarter-final) round. He also travelled to Wuxi, China, to feature in the IBSF world under-21 snooker championship.

Meanwhile, the draws of the event are being revised by the Pakistan Billiards and Snooker Federation (PBSF) as all the six cueists from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and two from Balochistan did not report in the players meeting at 12noon, an official told Dawn on Sunday.

“We waited for the players till 2pm but to no avail,” he said adding the KP cueists telephoned in the evening and informed about their arrival in the city. However, they were asked to report half-an-hour before the start of first session.

The official added that Balochistan’s Mohammad Aamir has been replaced by Sudesh Kumar while Ahsan Zakir’s entry was rejected after he was found ineligible.

As many as 16 matches, spread over four sessions, will be played on Monday. The first session starts at 10am. The event concludes on Feb 9 with the final.

Top two players of the event will be eligible to represent Pakistan in the 14th Asian under-21 snooker championship scheduled to be held at Indore, India, from April 1 to 7.