The next stop on the calendar this summer is Poland, for the tenth edition of the World Games currently being staged in Wroclaw.
The World Games is a global multi-sport festival of events featuring sports that are not otherwise contested in the Olympic Games.
The World Games, organised by the International World Games Association but also recognised by the International Olympic Committee, runs every four years in the year following an Olympic Games outing.
For the fifth time since the Akita Games in 2001, cue sports will be represented.
Carom billiards and 9-ball pool competitions will be played out for a gold medal, as well as a 15-red snooker tournament in which India’s Aditya Mehta is the defending champion.
Mehta beat Liang Wenbo to claim the gold medal four years ago and returns as one of six professionals in the 16-man field on this occasion.
The 31 year-old will play home hope Kacper Filipiak in the opening round with top 16 competitors Ali Carter and Kyren Wilson also among those in action.
Ireland’s Michael Judge is one of the most high-profile amateurs in the line-up but faces a tricky opener against one of the two women players invited to take part.
Judge will face Hong Kong’s Ng On Yee, the women’s professional world champion, while Northern Ireland’s Declan Brennan will do battle with Wendy Jans, the IBSF women’s world champion for the last five years straight.
Another interesting old face in the draw is Peter Francisco, the South African former world number 14 who was famously banned for five years in the mid-1990s for suspected match fixing.
The schedule gets under way on Wednesday with every encounter played over the best of five frames in a straight knockout format.
The champion will be crowned on Sunday before the Closing Ceremony on the final day of action in this year’s World Games.
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