World Games set for Spectacular Opening
Four years have passed since Cali but tonight will finally see the start of the 2017 World Games with a spectacular opening ceremony at the Stadium Wroclaw, Poland.
Running from 20-30 July, the tenth edition of the Games is set to be the best yet, with five days of Billiard Sports events getting underway next Wednesday 26 July.
History of the Games
First held back in 1981, the World Games take place every four years in the year following the Olympic Games and are organised and governed by the International World Games Association (IWGA), under the patronage of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Both organisations cooperate on a regular basis and share the same values, including the promotion of healthy initiatives and physical activity and, consequently, the creation of conditions to improve the quality of social life.
The World Games are organised to promote sports representing affiliated federations and physical culture in general. Since its formation, the IWGA has grown from 12 to 37 international sport federations including the World Confederation of Billiard Sports (WCBS – an umbrella organisation encompassing major cue sports including snooker, carom billiards and pool), which has greatly contributed to the enrichment of the programme of the next World Games.
The WCBS was granted IWGA membership on 1st January 1998 and at this year’s landmark tenth World Games, sees cue sports take their place on the world stage for the fifth time, having first featured at the 2001 Games in Akita, Japan.
In total more than 25 sports will be showcased and approximately 4,500 athletes, officials and volunteers from more than 100 countries involved. The athletes will compete for gold medals across approximately 180 disciplines during the event.
As has been the case since the Akita Games, cue sports will once again be classified under the discipline of billiard sports in Wroclaw, with four competitions held in total. These include snooker, pool (male and female competitions) and 3-cushion carom billiards events, which have seen several notable medallists down the years including past and future ranking tournament winners.
Snooker at the Games
The snooker competition at the World Games will see a mix of current and former professionals, as well as amateur winners at international level battle it out to take home the gold medal.
Full updates, including the results, schedule and tournament breaks will be available throughout the tournament here.
Full Draw:
Ali Carter (England) v Shaun Dalitz (Australia)
Wendy Jans (Belgium) v Declan Brennan (Northern Ireland)
Aditya Mehta (India) v Kacper Filipiak (Poland)
Xu Si (China) v Mohammad Bilal (Pakistan)
Soheil Vahedi (Iran) v Peter Francisco (South Africa)
Andrew Pagett (Wales) v Alexander Ursenbacher (Switzerland)
Ng On Yee (Hong Kong) v Michael Judge (Ireland)
Kyren Wilson (England) v Andres Petrov (Estonia)
To learn more about the IWGA and the 2017 World Games visit: www.theworldgames.org/
All images courtesy of the International World Games Association.
