Mohammed Shehab had to settle for silver medal in the snooker singles final at the West Asian Championships.
The UAE player took a two frame lead but went down 5-3 to the world amateur champion Hossein Vafaei of Iran at the Concorde Fujairah hotel.
The two finalists kept a large crowd engrossed for more than four hours as the they produced some quality snooker.
After the initial hiccup, Vafaei hit back with a vengeance to win four frames in a row and go four frames to two up.
Shehab rallied to take the seventh frame, but in the next the balls lined up nicely for Vafaei and he did not miss the opportunity of a victory to take the gold medal.
Shehab and Vafaei had taken contrasting routes to the best-of-nine frames final.
Shehab, who had an easy outing against compatriot Mohammed Al Joaker in the quarter-finals, winning 4-1. He then struggled early in his semi-final before he claimed a 4-2 victory over Omar Alkojah of Syria.
Vafaei, a 4-1 winner over Ehsan Hyderi, also from Iran in the quarter-final, breezed through his semi-final by beating Qatar’s Ahmed Saif 4-0.
* Agency
