Ireland’s 16 year old Aaron Hill brave run to become the 2018 IBSF World Under 16 Snooker Champion in St. Petersburg, Russia ended with the Corkman losing the final 4 frames to 3 to Ben Mertens from Belgium.
The final started off with the young Corkman winning the opening two frames with a 78 and 47, back came the young Belgium to close the gap to 2-1, Aaron then went 3-1 with a help of a 45 break and was in touching distance of the world title. Ben then fought back again to win the next two and force a decider with a top break of 74.
In the decider Aaron got in first and made 32 but after many safety shots, Aaron got Ben in a very difficult safety position. The young Belgium tried to pot his way out of trouble but missed and it seemed Aaron would get his chance to win the world title but a red dropped in. 13 year Belgium did not want another chance and made a winning clearance of 53 under pressure to win the world title and deny Aaron the title.
Aaron had a fantastic tournament with a superb 4-2 victory over Luis Vetter from Switzerland last night in the QFinals and in the Semi Finals today when he beat India No.1 Digvijay Kadian 4-2.
JOINT TOURNAMENT HIGH BREAK
Aaron Hill also won a share of High Break with his superb 131 break
National Coach PJ Nolan said it was overall a fantastic tournament for all the RIBSA juniors. I was so proud of the way they played and behaved in Russia. We are all gutted for Aaron after coming so close but i told him we will be back again fighting for the titles in the future.
Well done Aaron and all the players and you were great ambassadors for RIBSA and your families.
Knock Outs
All six RIBSA players played in the last 32 knock outs this morning with Aaron Hill, Leone Crowley, Ryan McGuirk and Sean Walsh all winning their matches to move into the last 16, but in the Last 16 it was only Aaron Hill who survived to play against Switzerland tonight.
All the other young RIBSA players should be very proud of themselves as they played superb snooker in the event and it was great for their development.
Last 32
Aaron Hill Ireland beat Priyansh Jain from India 3-1
Sean Walsh Ireland beat Jack Newman Ireland 3-1
Leone Crowley Ireland beat Artemijs Žižins from Latvia 3-1
Ryan McGuirk Ireland beat Maxim Ene from Romania 3-0
Lewis Casserly Ireland lost 0-3 to Rhys Morgans from Wales
Last 16
Ryan McGuirk Ireland lost 2-3 to Rhys Morgans from Wales
Sean Walsh Ireland lost 0-3 to Kirill Margolin from Russia
Leone Crowley Ireland lost 0-3 to Yazan Alhadad from Syria
Aaron Hill Ireland beat Nikita Kolpačenko from Lithuania 3-2
This event runs from the 30th September till 6th October and the last 32 in scheduled for 10am & 12 noon tomorrow followed by the last 16 at 3pm and then the Q Finals at 6pm. The semi final and final will be played on Saturday.
CLICK ON RIBSA PLAYER – GROUP, RESULTS
