By SHAMAOMA MUSONDA –

FAST-RISING star Kelvin Phiri at the weekend lived up to his high billing after beating Samuel Hamusankwa 7-4 in an exciting 2015 Infinity National Pool Championship quarter final tie at Club Infinity in Lusaka.
Having popped onto the limelight after beating Zambian champion Moses Mofya in the round of 16, Kelvin from Obamas Pool Club was on the spotlight when playing Hamusankwa in the best-of-13 basis game.
Kelvin dully delivered on expectations by securing the last-four spot in the 11th game and will now have to deal with Lewis Phiri of Great Mumana Pool Club who got to the semi-finals after defeating Kelvin Mangalashi 7-4.
Also making the semi-finals was Juma Ramadan, who shocked senior national team player Chimuka Chiyonkoma with a 7-4 win and got the right to face the enterprising Aven Sichalwe who got the better of Elisha Mwaba in the other quarter-final.
The semi-final line-up means Obamas Pool Club has two players in the last four and these are Kelvin and Sichalwe, who have conveniently avoided each other while UTH and Great Mumana has one player each in this tournament whose first prize is a Toyota IST vehicle.
Meanwhile, national pool coach Ken Mwape expressed happiness with the tournament and especially the skill exhibited as that shows that the game in Zambia was on the rise.
“It’s been a good tournament so far, we can see that those are in the last four are not the players everyone really expected. This shows an improvement in skill and levels of competition.
Even here, I can’t tell who is favourite now but it’s all good and encouraging for the game,” said Mwape, who is also the 2013 Africa Cup winning coach.
Apart from the car of offer for the first prize, the runner up will get K8, 000 with the third and fourth place finishers pocketing K5, 000 and K2, 000 each respectively.
The semi-finals and final will be played this Sunday at Club Infinity in Kamwala.