By elliott West
Wael Talaat is a very talented snooker player from Egypt and has been creating a storm on the African snooker scene for some years. Amongst his many victories is his achievement that has made the Guinness Book of Records, becoming the first player in the history of Six Reds in 2014 to score a break of 83 points. The highest possible break in Six Reds is 75 but in this classic match Wael was able to get a free ball after his opponent committed a foul. Talaat also managed to score breaks in all four frames at every first opportunity to score.
Wael has won the ABSF African Snooker Championship on three occasions, 2007, 2009 and 2011 and had a chance to compete on the main tour in 2016 due to winning the African Championship. However he didn’t really compete on the main tour and his main victories remain in South and North Africa. To clarify, Peter Francisco actually won the title in 2016, beating Talaat 6-1 but Peter decided not to take up the offer of a main tour card place so Wael was offered it as he reached the final.
Talaat is well respected is his home country of Egypt for the work he does as a coach and mentor for younger aspiring snooker players. He also has the opportunity this year to play on the Seniors tour and has been invited to play the winner of the Crucible event in August. This will be a fabulous opportunity for World Seniors Snooker to showcase an African snooker player to a Western audience. Once again it highlights and proves that the snooker message is alive and well and is producing quality players across the globe. Wael throughout his coaching sessions in Egypt will hopefully nurture more talent and this should act as a stepping stone for future stars receiving main tour cards in the near future.
