Vidya Pillai, a seasoned cueist, reached a watershed moment in her remarkable career when she won the IBSF 6-Red Snooker World Championship title in Doha, Qatar, only days before her 46th birthday. The Bengalurean put up a great performance, overwhelming her opponents throughout the competition, culminating in a 4-1 victory against compatriot Anupama Ramachandran in the final match. Vidya demonstrated her ability in the semifinal match against Bai Yulu, with a significant run of 33 in the second frame and an amazing clearance of 63 in the fourth. She swept Group ‘A’ with an unblemished all-win record before defeating compatriot Varshaa Sanjeev 3-0 in the pre-quarters. Vidya’s tremendous skill was on display in the quarterfinal round against On Yee, when she secured a clean 4-0 victory, leaving her opponent with only 15 points in the entire match. Vidya Viswanathan Pillai is an Indian professional snooker player who was born on November 26, 1977 in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Vidya Pillai has won several international medals for India, including a gold medal in the 2013 IBSF World Team Snooker Championship. In 2016, she won another gold medal at the IBSF Australian Women’s Ranking Snooker Championship. Notably, she became the first Indian woman to reach the finals of the WLBSA World Women’s Snooker Championship in 2017. Her achievements include winning a silver medal at the Asian Billiard Sport Championship in Doha in 2016. Vidya finished second in the WLBSA World Women’s Snooker Championship in 2017, barely losing the title to Ng On-yee. In recognition of her amazing achievements, the Government of Karnataka bestowed the Ekalavya award on her in 2016, recognising her outstanding performance in sports.

Max Verstappen finished a spectacular and record-breaking season in familiar fashion, cruising to Red Bull’s 19th win of the year in an action-packed Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

The three-time world champion finished 17.993 seconds clear of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, whose brave drive was insufficient for the Italian team to finish second in the constructors’ title.

Although Sergio Perez finished second behind Verstappen on the road, he was relegated to fourth with a five-second penalty for a mid-race collision with McLaren’s Lando Norris, which promoted George Russell to third.

Norris finished fifth, ahead of McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri, Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin, Yuki Tsunoda of Alpha Tauri, and seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton in the second Mercedes.

Verstappen finished the season as the only driver to complete every lap of the season, with almost 1000 laps led, breaking Jim Clark’s 1963 record for the most laps led in a season. The race started in sweltering circumstances, with an air temperature of 27 degrees Celsius with the track progressively cooling as the sun set and the floodlights illuminated the Yas Marina Circuit. The top 12 cars began on medium compound tyres.

The Dutchman led from pole and held off three early attempts from Leclerc to build a one-second lead before the Drag Reduction System (DRS) was activated on lap three, when Perez slid inside Hamilton for eighth and Norris passed Piastri for third, having already overtaken Russell.

As the leaders pitted for hards, Yuki Tsunoda took over on lap 18, providing Alpha Tauri and Tost with a remarkable occasion, the only time a Japanese driver had led a Formula One race. He sat there as Verstappen worked his way back to the front, finally retaking control on lap 23 when Tsunoda pitted, returning in 12th place behind Hamilton, who was damaged by an early collision with the rear of Pierre Gasly’s Alpine.

By lap 30, the story had become commonplace. Verstappen had a 6.5-second lead over Leclerc, with Russell third and Norris fourth. Hamilton finished seventh, with Sainz 14th.When Russell was passed by Perez for third, the’silver arrows’ hopes were hung on the five-second penalty the Mexican was given for an earlier collision with Norris as the flag came out for Verstappen.