CAÏRO - For the thirteenth time in a row and the fourteenth time in total, Sameh Sidhom is the proud Egyptian champion in three cushion billiards. The 35-year-old African player, number five on the world ranking, won three of four tournaments and this weekend the last zonal tournament in Cairo in the final against Riad Nady. Sidhom missed the first of the four Grand Prix events due to Corona. With the title, the champion crowns a wonderful year, in which he played among others the final of the World Cup in Las Vegas and lost to Dick Jaspers.
Sameh Sidhom was never so close to a golden World Cup before, after he also shone in the World Games in Poland and was on the podium of the World Championship in Randers. ''I want to keep performing so well'', Sidhom said this Sunday after his championship win at Rivoli in Cairo. ''I try to win as much as possible and hopefully perform well in big tournaments.''
In the final of the zone tournament, the finish of the tournaments, Sidhom defeated Riad Nady 45-27 in 18 innings, giving him an overall average of 1.608. Riad Nady was second with 1.098, Samer Habibi third with 0.911, Ahmed Abdallah fourth with 0.887 and Khaled Salem fifth with 0.789. Sidhom made a best run of fifteen in this series.
In the championship, Samer Habibi was a rather new player, who comes from snooker and switched to three cushion. He will probably be rewarded with a wildcard for the World Cup in Sharm El Sheikh this year.
Sameh Sidhom (m) with the trophy together with Riad Nadi and Samer Habibi