Pankaj Advani gives India its first Asian Games gold

Guangzhou : Pankaj Advani gave India the first gold medal from the Asian Games after he retained his title by beating Myanmar’s OO Nay Thway Oo 3-2 in the English billiards singles final here on Sunday.

Advani defeated Thway 33-100, 100-61, 12-101, 101-4, 100-45 in a tight contest at the Asian Games Town Gymnasium.

Earlier in the day, Advani had defeated Thway’s compatriot OO Kyaw Oo to make the final.

Advani started it slowly and lifted his game in the last two frames, where the Thway got no chance to bounce back in the match despite leading 2-1.

Meanwhile, Alok Kumar also entered the semi-finals of the men’s 8-ball pool singles. He defeated Indonesian Ricky Yang 3-2 in the quarter-finals. Alok now plays Po-Cheng Kuo for a place in the finals.