A detailed profile of Geet Sethi: the dominant player of English Billiards and notable Snookers player of India
PERSONAL DETAILS:
Name: Geet Siriram Sethi
Birth: 17th April 1961 at Delhi
Family Status: Married to wife Kiran, has two children: daughter Jazz and son Raag
Education: Studied at St. Xavier’s School, Ahmedabad
- BA from St. Xavier’s College, Ahmedabad
- MBA from BK School of Management
Works for: Tata Oil Mills as the Manager
INTO THE CUE WORLD:
Start: At the members’ table – Managing Committee of the Gujarat Sports Club, Ahmedabad
Inspiration: Satish Menon, a very successful Billiards player of the time
NATIONAL CIRCUIT:
1979: Won both the Junior National Billiards Championship and Junior National Snooker Championship
1982: Created a double in the National Billiards, when he won the Junior National Doubles Billiards Championship and defeated Michael Ferreira to win the Senior National Billiards title
1985, 1986, 1987 and 1988: Won both the Indian National Billiards Championship and Indian National Snooker Championship
1997 and 2007: Won the Indian National Billiards Championship again
2008: Runner Up in the Indian National Billiards Championship and entered the Top-16 Round in the Indian National Snooker Championship
INTERNATIONAL CIRCUIT:
1984: Won the International Snooker Professional-cum-Amateur Championship in England & the International Billiards Amateur Championship in Windsor
1985, 1987 and 2001: Won the IBSF World Billiards Championship
1986: Won the Asian Billiards Championship
1989: World Amateur Snooker semi-finalist‚ Asian Snooker Championship number 3
1992, 1993, 1995, 1998 and 2006: Grabbed the World Professional Billiards Championship
1996, 2003, 2005 and 2008: Runner Up in the World Professional Billiards Championship
1998: Double Gold Medal at the Bangkok Asian Games collaborated with Ashok Shandilya
2002: Busan Asian Games – won a Silver Medal in the Doubles event and a Bronze Medal in the Singles event
2006: Bronze Medal in the Doubles event at the Doha Asian Games in partnership with Ashok Shandilya. Also, won the USA Senior Team Snooker Championship in partnership with Devendra Joshi and BVS Moorthy
2007: Won the Irish Open Billiards Championship and a Silver Medal at Indoor Asian Games English Billiards tournament
2008: Won the English Billiards Open Series held at Prestatyn, Wales and finished as a Runner Up in the World Pro Billiards Championship held at Leeds
ACHIEVEMENTS:
- Winner of eight World titles including five World Professional and three IBSF World Billiards Championships
- Featured in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the first amateur in the world to compile the maximum 147 break in Snooker in 1989 at National Snooker Championships held at Guntur, Andhra Pradesh
- Made a break of 1276 in the 1992 World Professional Billiards Championship, a World Record. This is the highest world championship break of the last 50 years
- Padma Shri (1986)
- Arjuna Award (1986)
- Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award (1992-93)
- KK Birla Sports Foundation Award 1993
OTHER ACTIVITIES:
- Co-founder of Olympic Gold Quest, a program of Foundation for Promotion of Sports and Games
- Authored a book ‘Success v/s Joy
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Aditi Rindani 