Last week our National Coach PJ Nolan was invited back to Tel Aviv in Israel to train and prepare Shachar Ruberg for the 2013 Israel Senior National Snooker Championship. The 19 year old went on to win the Israel Senior Championship for the first time when he beat David Vaizman 6 frames to 5 in an exciting encounter to claim the title and become the youngest Champion.
In the final, David Vaizman started very strong to lead 2 nil but Ruberg fought back to lead 3-2, 4-3 and 5-4 but each time Vaizman who is a qualified EBSA Coach levelled the match to force it into a final frame shootout. In the deciding frame Vaizman got in first to make 18 but risked a dangerous double, he missed to let in Shachar in to make a stunning 71 frame winning break to claim this prestigious and allusive title he wanted.
The new Israeli Champion was delighted to claim his first Senior title to add to his National Under 21 and National Premier League titles he had already won earlier in the year.
This again highlights the progress Shachar is making in the game over the last few seasons since joining PJ’s Academy with this tremendous achievement after coming 3rd in 2011, 2nd in 2012 and now becoming the National Champion in 2013.
Shachar thanked PJ for guiding him to this success as it was one of the main goals this season to win all three Israeli titles. He said ” PJ’s training and coaching gets you ready and into the zone to believe you can win and he is already looking forward to his next camp in February 2014.
The Championship was held in the G2 Arena in Ashdod which is a new state of the art venue that will be used as the new Israeli Snooker Academy. PJ was very impressed with quality of the new Israel Snooker Training Academy. He Said ” This Academy is one of the very best he have ever seen with perfect match Tables and it will help Israel produce a number of top Israeli players over the next few seasons ”
At present the Academy contains four beautiful Shender match tables with professional lighting but the Israel Snooker Association are planning to extend the venue over the next few months with another eight tables in preparation for the 2014 EBSA Under 21 and EBSA Team Championship that are planned for Israel in March.
PJ said ” He was thrilled and very proud with the overall performance as Shachar had been ill with a virus all week but Shachar is one of the most dedicated players and all his hard work over the last year paid off in helping him win the title ”
Shachar is now focusing on preparing for the IBSF World Amateur Championship being held in Latvia in a few weeks.
Q-Final Results
Shachar Ruberg 5-1 Danny Bismut
Maor Shalom 5-0 Ilan Shimshi
David Vaizman 5-4 Shay Arama
Elran Gezi 5-2 Dima Drabkin
Semi Final Results
Shachar Ruberg 6-2 Maor Shalom
David Vaizman 6-4 Elran Gezi
Final
Shachar Ruberg 6-5 David Vaizman
High Break 122 Roy Fernandez