‘I owe it to Kothari, Roe’
After starting off with the beautiful game of football, the green baize caught the fancy of Sohail Vahedi and the former’s loss has been the latter’s gain. Last month Vahedi’s journey came to fruition as he was crowned the IBSF world snooker champion last month, defeating Welshman Andrew Pagett in the title tilt.
Vahedi has now turned his attention to billiards as he looks to build on the snooker success at the World Billiards Championship at the KSBA.
The 28-year-old Vahedi who gave up playing soccer due to family problems, found a new passion 14 years ago and has since made it his life’s passion, without any regrets.
Having won the major title last month, the Iranian is here merely for the experience and opens up about his early days and cue sports in his country. Excerpts:
On early days: I was a soccer player before, a goalkeeper mostly. I was beginning to progress well but I had family problems and couldn’t continue playing soccer. When I entered the snooker club and as soon as I saw the table, I couldn’t leave it. So I was watching for hours and hours to learn the game. I had no coach at first. My father used to be a very good player before. So I told my father there’s a snooker club in the vicinity and he came with me and I started playing.
I initially learnt the game from him and I’ve