Geet Sriram Sethi was born on 17^th April 1961 in Delhi. Though he belongs to a Punjabi family, he grew up in Ahmadabad.  He attended St. Xavier’s High School and St. Xavier’s College in Ahmadabad. He did his Masters in Business Administration from B.K. School of Business Administration. He became passionate about the game of billiards when he was just a kid though he was not allowed to play the game. He laid his hands upon a billiards table at Ahmadabad. Observing his extra ordinary talent, the Managing Committee of the Gujarat Sports Club allowed him to play the game at the members’ table. He took important tips from Satish Menon, an important billiards player of his time.

Get Sethi achieved international prominence by winning the World Amateur Billiards Championships in 1985 against Bob Marshall in a final round that went on for eight long hours. In 1987, he again won the International Billiards & Snooker Federation’s event, as well as the Asian Confederation of Billiards Sports’ Championship. He won another World Amateur Billiards title in 2001.

Geet Sethi is a six-time winner of the professional-level and a three-time winner of the amateur World Championships. He is also the holder of two world records in English billiards. He won his first major English billiards event in 1982 which was the Indian National Billiards Championship. This was an international event despite its name defeating Michael Ferreira and later went on to win the title again for four years in a row from1985 to1988 and returned in both 1997 and 1998 to reclaim the title.

Geet Sethi also took the Indian National Snooker Championships four times back to back in the same period of 1985 to. In the 1989 event, held at Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, though he did not take the title, he did achieve the world's first amateur maximum break of 147 in official competition. He is featured in the Guinness Book of World Records as the first amateur in the world to compile the maximum 147 break in snooker.

In the 1992 World Professional Billiards Championship, Geet Sethi constructed a world-record English billiards break of 1276 under the three-pot rule which also stands as the highest break in five decades and won first place. He went on to win the title again in 1993, 1995, 1998, and 2006.

In the World Professional Billiards Championships from 1992 onwards, he has beaten Mike Russell in 1992 and 1993. In 1994, he lost to Peter Gilchrist. In 1995, he beat Devendra Joshi. In 1996, he lost to Mike Russell. In 1998, he beat Mike Russell. In 2002, he lost to Peter Gilchrist. He lost to Mike Russell again in 2007 and 2008. These are the titles that he has won:

• World Professional Billiards Champion: 1992, 1993, 1995, 1998, 2006
• World Amateur Billiards Champion: 1985, 1987, 2001
• Gold Medallist, 13th Asian Games, Bangkok 1998
• Asian Billiards Champion: 1987
• National Billiards Champion: 1982, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1997, 1998
• National Snooker Champion: 1985, 1986, 1987 and 1988

Geet Sethi is regarded as a major sports hero in India. He is a recipient of India's highest sporting award, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award for 1992–1993. He also received the Padma Shri and the Arjuna Award in 1986 and the K.K. Birla Award in1993.

Geet Sethi lives in Ahmadabad, with his wife Kiran and their two children, Jazz and Raag. In addition to billiards competitions, Sethi also runs a private travel agency in Ahmadabad and Mumbai called Raag Travels. In 2005, he wrote an autobiographical motivational book called `Success vs. Joy’.

Presently, he is promoting a venture called Olympic Gold Quest along with Prakash Padukone which is committed to supporting sports persons with Olympic medal-winning potential.

Article Posted By : tahnak  On August 26, 2011lView All Articles

Tahseen Nakavi Juror

Article Source :

http://www.veethi.com/articles/geet-sriram-sethi---achiever-of-the-highest-english-billiards-break-in-five-decades-article-204.htm

Keywords :
Geet Sethi , Billiards , Snooker