The first players of the People of Determination national team aspire to represent the UAE in international forums

Al-Zaabi is close to a world achievement in "Snooker" with 5% of the sense of sight

Saeed Al Zaabi during training in "Snooker".

Photography: Eric Arrasas

The player of the People of Determination team for “Snooker”, Saeed Al-Zaabi, in his first year with the team, came close to recording the achievement (1000 Century), or what is known as winning more than 100 consecutive points in the matches of this game, despite the challenges imposed by the absence of the sense of sight and blindness. 100% in his right eye, and relying on less than 5% in the tip of his left eye, which makes him unable to accurately determine the places and colors of balls on the table, and use his intuition to shoot towards the balls.

Al-Zaabi told "Emirates Today": "My association with snooker goes back to my childhood, in a march that led me in 2013 to play for the national team of the Asians, but this march soon ended due to my blindness and loss of vision, and my entry into a long treatment journey, which culminated in 2020 with the recovery of Less than 5% in my left eye, and a broken image unable to determine places and even colors, but encouraging my sons who are currently in the Emirates teams, and having a table in my home, was behind my gradual return to playing the game as a hobby in 2019, in training quickly What revealed that I continued to possess talent, and led me in less than a month to score (Century), or what is known as winning the game with more than 100 consecutive points.

He added, "My close association with my friend, the first ranked Emirati snooker, Mohammed Shehab, was behind my breaking the barrier of dread. With his encouragement, I joined the academy he runs in Abu Dhabi, with the aim of continuing the training, and then supporting me in obtaining recognition and classification from the International Federation of People of Determination in 2021. Which was behind my strong return to become the first professional player in the People of Determination team for snooker.”

Regarding the mechanisms he uses to distinguish between the colors of the balls and determine their locations, and led him to approach the (1000 century) barrier within a year, Saeed said: “The snooker game was originally made up of red balls and others with yellow and brown colors very close to red, green, blue, pink and black, and it was adopted in Playing on my intuition when shooting the balls, and where the (Q-ball) or white shooting ball will stand on the table, in preparation for the next strike, in which the snooker game alternates shots between a red and a colored ball, until the end of the red balls, and then the payment in succession to the rest of the The colored balls, the last of them black, announce the end of the game.

He explained: “Since hitting the first ball in the half, I keep in my mind where the white kicking ball or (Q Ball) will stand before the next blow, and so on when I shoot consecutive strikes, to succeed several times in the past year in scoring a win with 148 consecutive points in one game. Which is considered the world record for the largest victory in the world of snooker in one run, and perhaps one of the most famous of the legends of this sport is the world star and British snooker legend Ronnie O’Sullivan.”

He continued: “As soon as the colored ball moves from its place, I keep it in my mind in preparation for hitting it in the blow that follows my shot on the red ball. Over the course of a year since I joined the People of Determination team, winning 960 games with a score (Century), confirms the continuity of the talent that he possessed, an achievement that is difficult for even the elite of professional players in the world to achieve over 20 years.”

Regarding his ambitions, he said: “The lack of support was the reason for preventing me from participating in the world championship this year, especially since my participation needs to be accompanied by a coach and assistant who guarantees me according to the laws of the International Federation for People of Determination when needed to distinguish between the colors of the balls on the table, and I look forward to continuing my training. Hoping to represent the state and raise the UAE flag in major international forums.”

He has completely lost the sense of sight in his right eye and sees 5% in the left, and relies on his intuition to shoot towards the balls.

In his first year with the national team, he came close to scoring the "1000th Century" achievement.

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