Super Swede Sherif is New Nordic Snooker Champion

Sweden’s Belan Sherif won the 2018 Nordic Snooker Championship at the City Biljard in Oulu, Finland.

Now an annual fixture, the championship featured players from all five Nordic nations – Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and this year’s host nation. The 40 players were split into eight groups of five, with the top two from each progressing to the knockout phase.

Sherif qualified second in Group A with three wins from four matches. He then eliminated Finnish trio Juha Erkinmikko 4-1, Esa Kaikumaa 4-3 and Sami Karttunen 4-0 to reach the final.

There he faced the undefeated Daniel Kandi from Denmark, who had impressed early on with two century breaks (105 and 102) during his opening group game. In total, Kandi dropped only four frames getting through to the title match.

However, it was Sherif who took control in the best-of-nine final by establishing a 4-1 lead. Kandi rallied to make it 4-3 and had an opportunity to force a deciding frame, but Sherif crossed the line to emerge a 5-3 victor.

Next year’s championship is scheduled to be held in Stockholm.

Written and published by Michael Day on the 21th January 2018.