Snooker tournament commences

PORT Moresby Billiards and Snooker Association has kicked off its annual tournament yesterday with 56 participants nationwide eying to claim the Port Moresby Open 2024 championship.
President Lasark Joseph told The National that despite being considered by many as a minor sport, they wanted to increase the number of competitors to build an interest.
“Such event will not be interesting to many and we do understand that,” Joseph said.
“That’s one of our biggest issues, but we are working very hard to change that mindset and try as much as possible to increase the number of our participants.
“At the moment we are working very hard on building interest and thanks to our major sponsors who have been supporting us and giving us the continuous support.
“In this tourney, we also promote gender equality so the championship is open for both female and male to participate.”
Event coordinator Kametan Sibunakau said the return of the annual snooker tournament this year would help raise the standard of the sport.
“We last held the tournament back in 2019,” he said.
“Covid-19 disrupted our plans starting from 2019 forward and its return today is through the support from our sponsors, big thanks to them.”