Shahid Aftab of Punjab won the NBP 49th National Snooker Championship, National Bank’s Mohammed Sajjad losing by 7-5 in the final after an exciting match. National Bank Senior Vice President Mudassar Inamullah was the special guest’ who distributed trophies and prizes among the winner and runner-up Quests and other players along with Pakistan Billiards and Snooker Association Chairman Alamgir Sheikh. According to Tournament Director Naveed Kapadia, the final of the 49th NBP National Snooker Championship held at the Snooker Arena of the National Bank Sports Complex on Saturday witnessed an exciting contest between National Bank’s Muhammad Sajjad and Punjab’s Shahid Aftab. At one stage, Muhammad Sajjad was trailing 5-2, but he won three consecutive frames to level the match at 5-5. After that, Shahid Aftab won the next two frames to win the final and the title also. The frame scores of the final were 69-9, 92-28, 48-70, 73-19, 49-70, 74-38, 79-24, 62-66, 22-63, 25-69, 81-36 and 71-61 in the favor of Shahid Aftab. Shahid Aftab also played breaks of 82 in the second frame, 52 in the sixth frame, 79 in the seventh frame and 81 in the eleventh frame, while Muhammad Sajjad played a break of 52 in the third frame and in the ninth frame. The winner, Shahid Aftab, was given a prize money of Rs. 200,000, while the runner-up, Muhammad Sajjad, was given a prize money of Rs. 100,000. Muhammad Asif was given a special prize of Rs. 50,000 for playing a break of 147 in the championship. The chief guest of the closing ceremony was National Bank Senior Vice President Mudassar Inamullah, while PBSA Chairman Alamgir Sheikh, PBSA President Javed Karim, Secretary General Zulfiqar A. Ramzi, National Bank Head of Sports Department Sher Muhammad, Tournament Director Naveed Kapadia, Adil Murtaza Farhan Rafique and others were also present.
