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Published on November 16, 2007

The hosts can draw a lot of encouragement from the way their young guns such as Chinnakrit Yaowannasiri and Passakorn Suwannawat have played in the tournament at the Sima Thani Hotel so far.

Chinnakrit, runner-up at this year's Asian Under-21 Championship in Doha, was once again at his best yesterday as he outclassed Atshsuhi Endo of Japan 4-0 to record his fourth straight victory in the men's event.

Though Passakorn was not in action in the first two sessions yesterday, he is placed on top in his group after scoring five straight victories and conceding only two frames in the process.

Experienced Atthasit Mahitthi played with ease against reigning African champion Wael Talaat of Egypt 4-2 to pick up his fifth win.

Phaithoon Phonbun, who lost on Wednesday, recovered with a hard-fought 4-3 victory over Chan Wai Ki of Hong Kong, a result that should further improve his chances of making it to the last 32.

Thepchaiya Unnooh has also regained composure with a convincing 4-0 victory over Itaro Santos of Germany.

Meanwhile, Mustafa Shehab of the United Arab Emirates continued his fine run as he got the better of former professional Bjorn Haneveer of Belgium, with a hard-fought 4-3 victory.

Habib Subah of Bahrain, third at the 2004 IBSF World Championships, fought valiantly but went down 4-3 to Andrew Pagget of Wales. It was the second loss suffered by Subah and could have a bearing on his efforts to qualify for the knockout stages, which start on November 22.

Chinese teenagers Zhang Anda and Li Hang continued to make their presence felt on the world stage as both of them have stayed unbeaten in their respective groups.

Meanwhile, former world champion Sakchai Simngam, now in his 50s, had little trouble in whipping Sergey Sergejev of Latvia 3-0 in the masters (over 40 years) competition.

Agencies

Nakhon Ratchasima