Ronnie and John Higgins played one last exhibition yesterday evening in Sofia. Tomorrow the 2024/25 snooker season will actually begin with its first ranking event, the 2024 Ranking Championship League Snooker.

This time it was John Higgins who prevailed by 5-4. Despite Ronnie’s defeat, I thoroughly enjoyed the match. It was very high quality and played in great spirit in front of a huge crowd.

The show was streamed and is now available on YouTube:

Big, big thanks as ever to Kalacs, the best media hunter on the planet!

Yesterday evening was the third and last night of exhibitions in Tampere. Gary Wison won the match by 6-5 but going by comments on social media both players played very well on the night. here is what a fan had to say on Twitter/X: “Gary Wilson beat Ronnie in 2 of their 3 matches. Both were playing well Ronnie had a 147 attempt to go 5-3 up but missed a red at 72 and Wilson cleared up with 73. Then Wilson nearly had a 147 but missed at 112. Ronnie forced a decider with 93 but Wilson won it with a century.”

Originally, only two nights had been scheduled, but faced with a huge demand, the organisers added a third “leg”. It was sold out in no time at all.

Here are some images shared on social media …

And short videos

I would definitely love to have a ranking event in Finland, or anywhere in mainland Europe actually. Break the UK centric nature of the tour!

There was also a piece with Ronnie in the press earlier this week. He was speaking about his passion: running.

Ronnie O’Sullivan, 48, tells Yle about his difficulties – still runs ten to 42 minutes, record breaking Cooper pace

A superstar’s 10-kilometer road running record is hard currency for a basic fitness enthusiast.

English snooker superstar Ronnie O’Sullivan is known not only as the best stick player of all time, but also for his love of jogging.

However, it was no mean feat when O’Sullivan clocked 34:54 in a 10-kilometer road race in Caen, France in 2008. He was 32 years old at the time.

In 2008, the time would have taken O’Sullivan to 40th place in the Finnish statistics, if the sample is limited to runners aged 32 and older. Last year, the ranking would have been 45th in that age statistic.

But a lot has happened in 16 years.

“I have suffered from so many injuries that my knees and legs can’t hold up like before. Nowadays, I would run ten in 42 minutes” 48-year-old O’Sullivan estimated for Yle Urheilu on Monday evening.

O’Sullivan agreed to give a short interview when the exhibition match against compatriot Gary Wilson ended in Tampere-talo. O’Sullivan won the match 6–3 and entertained the audience by, among other things, bagging a hitting streak of over 120 points in the last set.

After the match, it was already close to midnight, and the star wanted to go to the hotel as quickly as possible. It had been a long day, as O’Sullivan had only flown to Finland in the morning.

When it comes to O’Sullivan’s calendar, we talk about long work weeks.

“We spent 19 days in China on a screening tour that included performances in eight different cities. It meant five flights and three bullet trains in China alone” O’Sullivan’s manager Jason Francis told Yle.

The two had time to spend a day in England before flying to Finland, where O’Sullivan will play three exhibition matches . After Wednesday’s show, there is a flight to Bulgaria, where the tour will continue for the rest of the week.

To make such a pace possible, O’Sullivan takes care of his physique every day. Get to know Tampere on foot.

“On Tuesday and Wednesday, I plan to run 30-minute runs in the morning. If I run longer, my body gets sore. I haven’t been able to run for three weeks because my knees have felt sore. Age does not come alone” O’Sullivan said, but added after: “In the evenings, I plan to go to the gym before the evening matches. Tour life is like boot camp for me, where I’m like Rocky Balboa” , O’Sullivan said, referring to the legendary boxing character played by actor Sylvester Stallone.

Raised the standard to new heights

O’Sullivan has been playing at the absolute top of snooker for 32 years. Physical training and nutrition have played a significant role, especially in the 2000s, when O’Sullivan has won all seven of his world championships and broken most of the records in the sport.

The importance of healthy lifestyles was emphasized especially in the 2010s, when the number of ranking tournaments affecting the world list doubled from the previous decade.

O’Sullivan has spoken in favor of nutrition and exercise in several of his biographies. In addition, he has been publishing a book devoted solely to this topic in 2019. The older he gets, the more O’Sullivan says he invests in his well-being.

Many top players over the age of 30 have followed the example of O’Sullivan’s professionalism, but in the case of several young snooker players, the master’s teachings have not yet caught on. Numerous snooker professionals have told Yle Urheilu that especially the Chinese youngsters practicing in Sheffield, England, have not understood the level of requirements associated with being a professional today.

O’Sullivan doesn’t want to take a stand on what young players do, but he wants to talk about it through personal examples.

“Over the years, I have only wanted to develop and maximize my potential. I learned by watching others how to take care of diet and fitness. How to get all possible rest out of sleep? And so on. I have learned from the best. I hope that it will carry on in the future“.

Confused Nurmen with Zatopek

After Monday’s exhibition match, O’Sullivan thanked the Finnish audience in his victory speech and praised, among other things, the country’s running history.

When Yle Urheilu asked more about the subject, Lasse Virén’s four Olympic victories from 1972 and 1976 were basic oats for O’Sullivan. On the other hand, a hundred years ago, the information was not quite enough. When Paavo Nurme’s name came up, O’Sullivan interrupted.

“Paavo Nurmi. Wasn’t he Czechoslovakian?” O’Sullivan asked.

The snooker legend had confused Nurme with the folding running legend of the 1940s and 1950s, Emil Zatopek .

Virén’s 10,000 meter record was 27.38.35, Zatopek’s 28.54.2 and Nurmen’s 30.06.2.

O’Sullivan’s top 10 record of 34.54 was set on the road, but if the times were playfully compared to the legends, O’Sullivan would have lost 18 seconds to Virén and 15 seconds to Zatopek per 400m lap on the even pace table. Instead, Nurmi would have been less than 12 seconds faster than O’Sullivan per lap.

O’Sullivan’s top ten pace means he ran three 3400m results in a row in the classic Cooper’s test.

And now Ronnie and Jason are heading to Bulgaria for two more shows, this time with John Higgins. I’m expecting John to win those… if only because whenever I saw him live in exhibitions, he was dead-serious, whilst Ronnie would go for risky exhibition shots…

I remember one instance in particular many years ago. I can’t remember the year, nor the place but I remember what happened that night… There had been a raffle and two fans won a cue and were invited to play against the legends. One guy in his 50th won the first cue and was tasked to play John. He broke off … John cleared. The guy looked rather crest-fallen and Ronnie whispered to John “John … this is an exhibition, let him play a bit“. The other winner was a young girl who had probably never held a cue in her hands. Ronnie tried his best to make her play a bit. He was putting balls over the holes – and I mean right over the holes, as far in the jaws as possible without going in – but for some reason, the girl tended to elevate the butt of the cue and time after time managed to jump the balls out of the jaws of the pockets and send them on cushions. This went on for several minutes and the crowd was in stitches. Eventually a nonplussed Ronnie cleared the table… but it wasn’t quite the end of the story. As we were about to leave the venue, Ronnie was nowhere to be found… His manager – I can’t remember if it was Jason or Django – went to look for him and found him in the arena. Ronnie was trying to jump balls out of pockets the way that girl had done … and cursing because he was failing miserably 😂.

And once again big, big thanks to Kalacs!

Gary Wilson beat Ronnie by 6-2 yesterday evening in Tampere. He scored heavily: he had breaks of 71, 83, 135, 102.

There was a HUGE crowd in attendance.

Once again huge THANK YOU to Kalacs the best pictures hunter on the Internet!

Ronnie and Robin know each other for many years. Robin became a pro for the first time in 1993 and was on the main tour for 21 seasons in total. Yet, they have played each other only four times, the first occurence being in Thailand in 1997. Ronnie won all four of their encounters.