The ‘Prince of India’ or ‘The Golden Boy’,
Pankaj Advani is a professional English Billiards player and a former Snooker
player. He was born on 24 July 1985 in Pune. He spent his early years in Kuwait and later moved
to Bangalore. He did his schooling from Frank Anthony Public School, Bangalore and he completed his Bachelor’s degree in
Commerce from Mahaveer Jain College, Bangalore. Former national
Snooker champion Arvind Savur trained him in Snooker.
After been
introduced to the sport by Dr. Shree Advani the elder brother, at the age of 10
he was been noticed for the first time by his coach Arvind Savur. Dr. Advani is a well-known Sport and
Performance Psychologist. Pankaj won his career’s first ever title at
the age of 12 and then he went on to set several records at state and national
levels. In 2000 he won his first Indian Junior Billiards Championship title and
then won it again in 2001 and 2003. In 2003 he became the youngest National
Snooker Champion by winning the India Junior Snooker Championship in 2003. In
2002 Asian Billiards Championship held in Bangalore was Advani’s first
International debut in billiards and he finished it as a finalist.
After winning
the amateur World Snooker Champion title in 2003, he won IBSF World Billiards
Championship in 2005 at Qawra, Malta which was his first international snooker
debut he became the first to achieve a “grand double” in the event. Advani is the youngest player
to win all the world titles in English billiards, for 8 times making it a
record. Also, he is the only person to win all five national, regional, and
world billiards tournaments in a single season. Moreover he achieved a feat by
winning the Indian Junior National Championship and Senior National
Championship, the Asian Billiards Championship, and both the World Billiards
Championship in point format and World Billiards Championship in the time
format as well.
He won the WPBSA billiards
title, at Leeds in 2009, defeating the defending champion Mike Russell. After it he became the
first to win the WPBSA World Billiards Champion pro title, IBSF World Billiards Champion amateur
title and the IBSM World Snooker Champion amateur title trio. After winning the
Asian Billiards Championship in Goa in 2012 he had a tally of 17 international
majors out of which there were; 8 Worlds, 5 Asian Billiards, 2 Asian Games Gold,
1 Australian Open and 1 Asian Team. In 2013, he became the first Indian to
reach the quarter-finals of Welsh Open however he lost it to Judd Trump. In
September 2014 he decided to relinquish Snooker to concentrate on Billiards and
recently he participated in 2015 Indian Open though he lost it to Rhys Clark.
Besides his records he holds
several awards on his name. They are;
·
The Sports Star
Sportsperson of the Year in 2003.
·
The Indo-American
Young Achiever's Award in 2003.
·
The Arjuna Award
in 2004
·
The Rajeev Gandhi
Award in 2004
·
The Hero India
Sports Award (HISA) in 2004
·
The Bangalore
University Sportsperson of the Year in 2005
·
The Sports
Writers' Association of Bangalore.
·
Senior
Sportsperson of the Year in 2005
·
Vision of India's
"International Indian" Award in 2005.
·
Ekalavya Award in
2007
·
Karnataka's
'Kempegowda Award" in 2007.
·
Rajyotsava
Award, Karnataka's highest civilian award
in year 2007
·
Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, India's highest sporting honour, 2005-06
·
Padma
Shri, India's fourth highest civilian
honour in 2009.
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