Vietnamese billiards player Ngo Dinh Nai defeated his team mate Tran Phi Hung 100-79 in the final match of the 2012 Asian Billiards Championships’ 1-cushion event in HCM City on July 5.
This was considered a nice surprise to Nai, who nearly failed to enter the quarter-finals if there was no last-minute intervention by Gaku Nishio, Chairman of the Asian Carom Billiard Confederation.

After two matches in the same group, Tran Phu My qualified to advance the next stage as he had higher sub-scores than Nai.

However, Nishio carefully checked the results and quickly held an urgent meeting with the jury board at 11.pm and made a decision in favour of Nai as the tournament’s sub-scores were just based on the number of strokes not on the score difference defined by the confederation’s new rule.

He then met with the Vietnamese team and explained the reason to My, who eventually accepted the final judgment.

Nai easily thrashed Dang Dinh Tien 100-59 in the quarter-finals and Ma Minh Cam 100-31 in the semi-finals.

His rival Hung, who had replaced a Phillipino player, succeed in beating Japanese veteran Machida Tadashi after 18 shots in the quarter-finals and another Japanese player Kobayashi 100-99 in the semi-finals.

The 31-year-old Nai’s first champion title helped Vietnam dominate in the 1-cushion event with one gold, one silver and one bronze.

The 3-cushion event of the tournament is scheduled to start on July 6.

VOV