Cueist strives for professional billiards environment in Vietnam

Nguyen Phuc Long (Photo: Mai Huong/ ngoisao.net)

Nguyen Phuc Long showed a special interest in sports at a young age and won championships in soccer, shuttlecocks, and table tennis as a student at Marie Curie high school in Hanoi.

He was one of the first members of Hanoi’s billiards team. During his career as a professional cueist, Long has won a gold medal at the National Billiards Championship in 1997, and became a national champion in 2003. He bagged a bronze medal in the team category at the 22nd SEA Games and a gold medal for men’s singles at the 29th SEA Games’ snooker event in Laos in 2009.

“Over the past decade, I have thought of a way to change Vietnamese people’s attitude and to promote billiards and snooker. I’m now on the right track to turn my dream into reality,” he said.

Long used to run a billiards-snooker club. He thought of organizing a billiards championship in Vietnam that would attract players from around the world.

He also nurtured the idea of establishing a communication channel to promote 9-ball pool in Vietnam. Long has a billiards table in his house, where he has taught scores of players from different parts of Vietnam.

Phung Van Quy, one of Long’s students, said, “Mr. Long has created a very professional training environment. I’m really impressed with his knowledge of this sport”.

Nguyen Phuc Long is creating a billiards syllabus for new players and a set of standards for checking a player’s skills.

“I will promote IT applications that help players improve, develop billiards clubs, and provide services. We need a set of standards for billiards and snooker”.