Draw Made For World Games

The draw for the snooker discipline at the tenth staging of the World Games has today been announced.

Organised and governed by the International World Games Association (IWGA), under the patronage of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the 2017 World Games are set to be held in Wroclaw, Poland from 20-30 July 2017.

Snooker will be included for the fifth time since its introduction at the 2001 Akita Games and is to be contested over the final five days of the 2017 event (26-30 July). The field features nine current or former professional players, including Ali Carter and Kyren Wilson, two members of the world’s current top 16 for the first time at the World Games, as well as defending champion Aditya Mehta

They will be joined by a number of players who have achieved success in amateur competition at international level, including for the first time women players Ng On Yee and Wendy Jans following last week’s historic announcement that the competition is to be held as a mixed gender event for the first time in Wroclaw.

WCBS President Jason Ferguson said: “I am delighted that snooker will once again be part of the World Games this year. Since the previous staging of the Games in Cali, we have experienced hugely exciting times in snooker, seen many developments and the tour has grown into a truly global sport.

“Being part of the World Games is an opportunity to showcase our great sport on an international platform. I am looking forward to seeing our strongest field yet in action, including two top 16 players who are both major international event winners and for the first time two women players competing in what will be a mixed gender competition, a significant step for our sport.”

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)

 

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. The WCBS was granted IWGA membership on 1st January 1998.

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.

Cue sports will be classified under the discipline of billiard sports in Wroclaw, with four competitions held in total. These include snooker (mixed gender), 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.