Thailand's snooker team did well at the last Asian Games in South Korea, returning home with a silver medal from an unlikely source - Supoj Saenla, who was making his international debut.

Supoj's loss in the 2002 final served as an introduction for up-and-coming star Ding, who made history by becoming the youngest gold medallist at an Asian Games at the age of only 15. The Chinese prodigy, who last year made headlines by defeating veteran Steve Davis 10-6 to win the UK Championship, will be out to defend his Asiad crown in Qatar next month after initial fears his would play in the UK instead.

Another big star in the field is Asia's top-ranked player Marco Fu, who has a long list of successes in his glittering career at both the professional and amateur levels.

Apart from the two big stars, the field is strong and also features other high-profile players such as India's formidable duo Yashin Merchant and Pankaj Advani, Shokat Ali of Pakistan and British-born Singaporean Peter Gilchrist, who did two stints as national team coach.

After the withdrawal of well-known Thai player James Wattana, who opted to focus on his professional career, the Billiard Sports Association of Thailand (BSAT) has taken a realistic approach to their target at the games.

"To illustrate our chances in snooker at the Asian Games, I would like to categorise countries competing in the tournament. The first group is rated as A class, such as China and Hong Kong. The second is the B+ groups likes Thailand, Singapore and India," said player-turned-coach Chuchart Trairatanapradit, who is widely known as "Tai Pichit".

"We have to accept the fact that although our players can compete against any opponents in the region, we are still not a match for Ding [Junhui] and Marco [Fu]. So

our chances in the individual category look slim, even though we finished second last time.

"In my opinion, the doubles event is our real hope as it is more difficult to play due to complicated rules. When the player takes one shot, his next turn comes after the other three complete their plays, so endurance and concentration are the keys to this event.

"This will make hot-tempered players like Ding feel uncomfortable and that will cut down the gap between us and him.

"Considering that our players have been training together for long periods, I think that will stand them in good stead in Doha and hopefully they will claim one of the medals for us," added Chuchart, who tipped Phaithoon Phonbun and Atthasit Mahitthi as Thailand's highest hopes.

Chuchart added that Thailand faced a tight contest in the team division. He believes the format has given every country an equal chance of winning the title.

"The team event uses the best of five frames format. In each tie, it has single, double and reverse single matches like tennis," he said. "However, only one frame will decide each match. That means every team has a chance because anything can happen in a frame.

"I think it will be a close contest because each team is almost at the same level, but the advantage would be on the side who has equally good players like China."

The Nation

Kitinan Sanguansak