Cape Town - There’s a new World Eightball Pool Federation Ultimate Pool women’s singles champion, and she’s from Bonteheuwel.
Tasneem Solomons shot her way into the history books, as the 34-yearold defeated Wales’s Kirsty-Lee Davies, a former world champion, to become the first South African to lift the trophy and the championship.
The tournament was held in Blackpool, England, and included competition between the top players worldwide.
Solomons, who has spent the past 20 years working towards this achievement, said it meant the world to her.
“All the hard work for the past years. Coming from Bonteheuwel, it was difficult,” she said.
“Coming from the Cape Flats, this is the thing that kept me away from the streets, and I told myself that one day is one day.”
She started playing pool during her teenage years as her father owned a pool shop, and played her first nationals in 2008. In her quest for the title, she overcame Amy Beauchamp, the champion of the UK, Emma Cunningham of Northern Ireland, and Barbara Taylor of England in the quarter-finals.
The last match was a close contest that went down to the final frame, but Solomons kept her composure and won 8–7.
“To become the champion I had to take out four world champions and in the final, it was very nail-biting.”
She already has accolades under her name, as she won the national Eightball tournament in 2018.
In 2010, she took part in her first international competition, the World Blackball Championship, in France, and was part of the SA squad that won.
She also landed in the quarterfinals in the 2022 Eightball World Championships.
Solomons said: “It is tough for us as South Africans to go overseas because we don’t get funded by the government, they don’t see it as a sport.”
Cape Argus