Saturday Jan 13, 2018 | By: Syed Khalid Mahmood

KARACHI: Muhammad Naseem Akhtar will defend his title in the Jubilee Insurance 10th National Junior Under-21 Snooker Championship 2018 which cues off at the Pakistan Sports Complex in Islamabad on Saturday (today).

According to the details made available by the Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA) on Friday, a total of 34 cueists from Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), Balochistan and Islamabad, divided into eight groups, will participate in the preliminary rounds at the end of which the top two cueists from each group will qualify for the knockout phase, starting with pre-quarter-finals.

The six-day mega event is being supported by Jubilee Insurance Limited and Pakistan Sports Board (PSB). The league matches will be held in four different sessions, starting at 10am daily.

Holder Naseem Akhtar and last year’s runner-up Haris Tahir, both from Punjab, are taking part to add value to the championship.The draws of the event were taken out on Friday, according to which Group A comprises Umer Farooq (Pjb), Yasir Ahmed (Bal), Sheikh Ahmed (KPK), Ali and Zaman Khan (Sindh) while Group B contains Sheheryar Khan (Sindh), Hamza Aftab (KPK), Mahmood Ahmed (Isb) and Raees Ali Usama (Pjb).

Group C has the presence of Usman Khurshid (KPK), Syed Adil Shah (Bal), Sheikh Muhammad Mudassir (Pjb) and Hussain Godil (Sindh) while Group D features Rabish Pervez (Bal), Bilal Ali Khan (Sindh), Mubashir Munsif (KPK) and Muhammad Umer Khan (Pjb).

The quartet of Fahad Ghaffar (Isb), Muhammad Shahbaz (Pjb), S M Imran (Sindh) and Mubashir Khan (KPK) constitutes Group E while Group F has Siddiq Khan (Sindh), Fahad Ali (KPK), Abdul Aziz (Bal) and Shahzaib Malik (Pjb).

Usman Ahmed (Pjb), Sohaib Usman (Isb), Aqib Nawaz (Sindh), Atif Arshad (KPK) and Muhammad Naseem Akhtar (Pjb) have been drawn in Group G while Muhammad Rafiq (KPK), Altaf Hussain (Bal), Ahsan Ramzan (Pjb), Yasir Nouman (Sindh) and Haris Tahir (Pjb) are placed in Group H.