Asia Oceania Q-School Event 1 Outcome

The event concluded this morning (in Europe) with wins for Sunny Akani from Thailand and Lim Kok Leong from Malaysia. The full results and scores can be found on snooker.org.

I’m very happy to see Sunny back on tour: he’s a hard worker and very good player whose career was impacted by serious health issues. He belongs to the Main Tour.

Here is the report by WST:

Akani And Lim Capture Tour Cards

Thailand’s Sunny Akani and Malysia’s Kok Leong Lim claimed victories at Asia/Oceania Q School event one in Bangkok to secure two-year cards on the World Snooker Tour.

Akani is a familiar face on the professional circuit, having reached two ranking event quarter-finals on his previous spell on tour. The 28-year-old originally turned professional in 2015 and competed for seven years, before suffering relegation in 2022. His attempts to return to the tour have been hindered by illness and Long Covid.

Akani faced Iranian Ali Gharagozlou in the final round this evening. After leading 3-0, Akani was pegged back to 3-2 before he took the sixth frame to emerge a 4-2 victor. That earns him a tour card for at least the 24/25 and 25/26 campaigns. 

Akani said: “I was totally drained towards the end there. When I was leading 3-0, I knew I had to focus as anyone can come back and turn the game around if you lose focus. Hats off to Ali for coming back strongly. I’m sure he will be a tough contender in the second event.

Lim came through a nerve shredding clash with former professional Gao Yang to win 4-3 and earn his maiden tour card.

The victory sees Lim follow in the footsteps of Malaysian compatriot Thor Chuan Leong, who came through last year’s Asia/Oceania Q School.

Event two gets underway tomorrow, with a further two tour cards on the line.

I have to admit that I had never heard about Lim Kok Leong before this event.

The second Asia-Oceania Q-School starts tomorrow as mentioned in the report above.

The second UK/Europe Q-School started today, and you will find the results here on snooker.org .

The day isn’t finished yet at the time of writing.

I didn’t see a thing of it having been without Internet for most of the day.

On Yee again managed to win her first match, albeit helped a bit (or a lot?) by Lady Luck as she fluked the winning black!

Tony Knowles who will turn 69 years of age in two weeks time beat 17 years old Jack Borwick from Scotland by 4-3 … they had met at the same stage, round 1, in event 1 last week, and Jack had beaten Tony by 4-3 that time. Amusing coincidence.. and knowing Tony, I’m sure he was extra motivated today!