Jiten Sarangi plays the final match and (right) champion Subrat Das. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, March 15: Fifty participants from across the state fought it out for the first All Orissa BSA Snooker Open Championship title.

Held from March 6 to 13 in the city, the tournament, organised by the Billiards and Snooker Academy (BSA), was won by state number one Subrat Das in a tough contest with the other finalist Jiten Sarangi. Sarangi defeated Nishant Biswal in the semi-finals.

The final that was held on Sunday, began with Sarangi winning the first frame and giving Das a challenge for the rest of the 10 frames. But Das caught up soon and the contest went on to a three-all score. The crucial move from Das came when he held a break of 61 in the sixth frame of the match. The scores went on to 6-4 with top seed Das emerging victorious.

“I’m delighted with the victory. It has helped me boost my confidence for the upcoming national championships,” said Das, who is a seeded national snooker player and had defeated senior player Ahsan-ul-Haq.

Runners up Sarangi, who runs the BSA and had organised the tournament, was also thrilled. “This is the first time I reached the finals of a state level championship. Though I pursue cue-sports as a passion and am an amateur player, I’m happy I performed well against Subrat who is the rank one player from the state,” said Sarangi.

BSA had earlier organised three championships in the last year. “It’s very encouraging to see that organising these championships is indeed helping promote the cue-sports in the state,” said Sarangi. “We had participants from Berhampur, Rourkela, Cuttack and Bhubaneswar,” he said.

The participants too were equally enthused about the state-level championship. “I really enjoyed participating here since the open championship allowed both professionals and amateurs to come together,” said Godwyn Geoffrey.

“I love cue-sports and interacting with so many senior players here was a great experience for me,” said Ajay Munda, another player.

The organisers are now looking forward to bring in more females into the sports. “Though some female players are learning it at BSA, sadly none participate in the championships. We are trying to organise some events in the future to tap in their talent,” said Sarangi.