After three-week battle, the Cargo Stars Dar Open snooker tournament reaches the final today at the Dar es Salaam Gymkhana Club (DGC).
About 66 players from different Dar es Salaam based clubs started the event slated at four different groups – A, B, C and D. The clubs are Upanga Sports Club, Dar Institute, Annadil Burhani, Aga Khan Sports Club, Patel Samaj Dar Brotherhood and hosts DGC. Winners in each group advanced into the quarterfinals that were played on Thursday night.
The tournament was dominated by host club, who had six players in the best eight stage. The only players outside DGC at quarterfinals stage were Khuzema Kilango of Annadil Burhani and Upanga Club’s Mohamed Potty.
However, the two players could not manage to prevent the hosts to dominate semifinal, after they were all dismissed on Thursday. Kilango kissed goodbye to the tournament after suffering a 2-1 frames defeat to Kalpesh Lavingia in the tough and thrilling quarterfinal match. In other match, Potty lost to Manish Khattar by straight forward 2-0 frames.
Tournament favourite Arjun Lavingia went through into the semifinals with a 2-0 victory over Dhaivat Joshi, while veteran Raju Kanabar had to work hard to beat youngster Shyam Lavingia 2-1 in an all-DGC tie. The semi-finals were set to be played yesterday night with winners set to face each other in the final today.
In yesterday’s semis, Kanabar was on action against top player Arjun, while Khatter were taken by Kalpesh Lavingia, eager to prevent an all Lavingia’s final.
The tournament that is sponsored by Cargo Stars Ltd (CSL), co- sponsored is Superior Graphics Ltd, Samsung, Hotel Sea Cliff Zanzibar, J.D Pharmacy, A.A. Power & Tools and Spice Rack.