Bakradze Claims a Hat Trick of Georgian Snooker Titles

Defending champion Nodar Bakradze retained his title at the recent 2019 Georgian National Snooker Championship. 

Organised by the Georgian Snooker Association and held at the Star Snooker Academy in the capital city of Tbilisi, this was the fourth annual edition of the most important event on their domestic circuit.  

As last year’s winner, Bakradze was spared the preceding qualifying event and automatically featured in the main draw where he defeated Valeri Vadachkoria (3-0), Zurab Tushishvili (3-1) and Levan Rcheulishvili (4-0) to reach his fourth consecutive final.  

In a repeat of the 2017 trophy decider, Bakradze’s opponent was Lekso Jangulashvili. The same winner emerged, with Bakradze constructing an effort of 74 – a new all-time high break for the event – during a 4-1 victory. It is his third successive triumph in the competition. 

Although snooker is still during its infancy in Georgia, notable progress has been made with the sport in a relatively small amount of time. Competitively, since Sandro Kadagidze’s inaugural win in 2016, participation numbers in the national championship have risen each year, with a new record of 35 players taking part in 2019. 

Giorgi Durglishvili from the Georgian Snooker Association said “Within the last 12 months three high quality tables have been installed in the academy. With coaching and teaching, knowledge and the standard has raised; this was visible in this year’s championship with several 40 plus breaks registered. 

“Now that we have such a base and an experienced certified coach in Amir Younesi from Iran, we hope to attract more and more players, especially younger ages. It is a work in process, but we want to see people bringing their kids to try snooker. Our goal is to find talented youngsters, whilst also growing our base. In the near future we wish to add more tables.” 

Further information and coverage on the event can be found via the Georgian Snooker Association Facebook page here.