Pankaj Arjan Advani is an Indian billiards and professional snooker player. He is a 27-time International Billiards and Snooker Federation (IBSF) world champion. He has won 18 billiards world titles, the IBSF World Billiards Championship on 17 occasions and the World Team Billiards Championship once. In snooker, he won the IBSF World Snooker Championship three times, IBSF World six-red championship twice and the IBSF World Team Cup and IBSF World Team Championship one time each. He has the record number of IBSF world championships. He became a snooker professional in 2012/2013.
Efren Manalang Reyes, popularly known by the nicknames "Bata" and "the Magician", is a Filipino professional pool player, who is widely regarded as the greatest pool player of all time, and especially famed for his skill at the challenging one-pocket discipline. In 2003, he was inducted into the Billiard Congress of America's Hall of Fame.
Ding Junhui is a Chinese professional snooker player. He is the most successful Asian player in the history of the sport and widely regarded as the greatest Asian player of all time. Throughout his career, he has won 14 major ranking titles, including three UK Championships. He has twice reached the final of the Masters, winning once in 2011. In 2016, he became the first Asian player to reach the final of the World Championship.
Marco Fu Ka-chun, MH, JP is a Hong Kong professional snooker player. He is a three-time ranking event winner, having won the 2007 Grand Prix, the 2013 Australian Goldfields Open and the 2016 Scottish Open. He has been a runner-up at two Triple Crown events, at the 2008 UK Championship and the 2011 Masters. In addition, Fu has reached the semi-finals of the World Championship twice—in 2006 and in 2016.
The Masters is a professional invitational snooker tournament. Held every year since 1975, it is the second-longest-running professional snooker tournament after the World Championship. It is one of the three Triple Crown events, along with the UK Championship and the World Championship. Although not a ranking event, it is regarded as one of the most prestigious tournaments on the World Snooker Tour. The reigning champion is Ronnie O'Sullivan, who won his eighth Masters title in 2024, defeating Ali Carter 10–7.
Bu Xiangzhi is a Chinese chess player. In 1999, he became the 10th grandmaster from China at the age of 13 years, 10 months and 13 days, at the time the youngest in history. In April 2008, Bu and Ni Hua became the second and third Chinese players to pass the 2700 Elo rating line, after Wang Yue.
Stuart Bingham is an English professional snooker player who is a former World Champion and Masters winner.
Liang Wenbo is a Chinese former professional snooker player. During his playing career, he won one ranking title at the 2016 English Open, twice won the World Cup for China in 2011 and 2017 with teammate Ding Junhui, and was runner-up at the 2009 Shanghai Masters and the 2015 UK Championship. He made 292 century breaks in professional competition, including three maximum breaks, and reached a career high of 11th in the snooker world rankings.
India men's national field hockey team represents India in international field hockey competitions, and is governed by Hockey India. The team was formerly under the control of Indian Hockey Federation. India was the first non-European team to be a part of the International Hockey Federation. India's hockey team is the most successful team ever in the Olympics, having won a total of eight gold medals – in 1928, 1932, 1936, 1948, 1952, 1956, 1964 and 1980.
The 2006 UK Championship was the 2006 edition of the UK Championship, a professional snooker tournament that is one of the sport's three Triple Crown events. It was held from 4 to 17 December 2006 at the Barbican Centre in York, North Yorkshire. The competition was the third of seven World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) ranking events in the 2006/2007 season and the 30th edition of the tournament. It was broadcast in the United Kingdom and Europe on the BBC and Eurosport.
Li Xiaoxia is a Chinese table tennis Grand Slam champion.
Ian Alexandrovich Nepomniachtchi is a Russian chess grandmaster.
The 2006 Betfred Premier League was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that was played from 14 September to 3 December 2006.
Ding Liren is a Chinese chess grandmaster and the reigning World Chess Champion. He is the highest-rated Chinese chess player in history and also a three-time Chinese Chess Champion. He was the winner of the 2019 Grand Chess Tour, beating Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the finals and winning the 2019 Sinquefield Cup. Ding is the first Chinese player ever to play in a Candidates Tournament and pass the 2800 Elo mark on the FIDE world rankings. In July 2016, with a Blitz rating of 2875, he was the highest-rated Blitz player in the world. In July 2023, Ding became the No. 1 ranked Rapid player, with a rating of 2830.
National League 2 South was a level four league in the English rugby union system until the end of season 2021–22. It was one of two leagues at this level, with its counterpart, National League 2 North, covering the north of England. The format of the league was changed at the beginning of the 2009–10 season following reorganisation by the Rugby Football Union. The champions were promoted to National League 1. The runner-up play in a promotion play-off with the runner-up of National League 2 North; the team with the best record having home advantage. The bottom three teams were relegated, to either South West Premier or London & South East Premier. Esher are the current and final champions.
Ding Ning is a former Chinese table tennis player. She was the winner of women's singles in the 2011 World Table Tennis Championships.
Ding Jinhui is a retired Chinese basketball player.
Wei Yi is a Chinese chess grandmaster.
Ding Yanyuhang is a Chinese professional basketball player for the Nanjing Tongxi Monkey Kings of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA). He is considered to be one of the greatest Chinese basketball players and scorers of his generation, and was set to join the NBA after a successful showing with the Dallas Mavericks in the 2017 NBA Summer League at the age of 23. However, repeated knee injuries sidelined him from play after stellar CBA seasons in 2016-17 and 2017-18, where he won back-to-back CBA MVPs. This included a magnificent run in the 2018 CBA playoffs, where he scored an average of 29.8 PPG. Through June 2018 to October 2021, Ding was recovering from a string of foot and knee injuries and was out for over 1200 days without professional basketball.
Dommaraju Gukesh is an Indian chess grandmaster. A chess prodigy, he is the third-youngest Grandmaster in history, the third-youngest to reach a chess rating of 2700, the youngest to reach a rating of 2750 and the youngest winner of the FIDE Candidates tournament. Gukesh won the 2024 Candidates Tournament, making him the youngest contender to compete for the title of World Chess Champion.
