Six Champions, One Stage: Disability Snooker's Finest Descend on Shanghai
A Tournament With a Point to Prove
There is a moment in any great sporting occasion when the venue itself seems to understand what it is hosting. At the Hengshan Park Hotel in Shanghai on Monday, that moment came six times over — once for each classification group that crowned a champion at the 2026 WDBS International Disability Snooker Invitational Tournament. Forty-seven players, drawn from across the globe, had made their way to China for a non-ranking event that felt anything but inconsequential. With 17 international invitees joining a strong local contingent, and a National Disability Promotion event running alongside to introduce novice players to the sport, this was disability snooker at its most ambitious — and its most inspiring.
The tournament was delivered in partnership with the Shanghai Billiards Association, the China Administration of Sports for Persons with Disabilities, and the Chinese Billiards & Snooker Association. It was, in every sense, a collective effort — and the results across the six groups reflected the extraordinary depth of talent that disability snooker has quietly, and sometimes not so quietly, been developing around the world.
Beaumont Holds His Nerve in a Wheelchair Final to Remember
In the Group 1+2 wheelchair competition, England's Dave Beaumont added yet another title to what is becoming one of the most decorated collections in disability snooker. Beaumont, the current world number one, faced China's Wen Xue in the final — a player who had previously reached the quarter-final of the 2025 World Championship and who had earned his place in the title match with four consecutive group stage victories, not dropping a single frame along the way. Beaumont had done exactly the same. Something had to give.
It was Wen who drew first blood, taking the opening frame in front of what must have been a partisan home crowd. But Beaumont has been in these situations before. Composed, precise, the Englishman won the next two frames to claim the gold medal 2-1. Eight players entered the Group 1+2 draw; only one could leave with the title, and it was the world number one who reminded everyone why he wears that ranking.
Seekao Remains Untouchable — and Raebankoo Keeps His Perfect Record Intact
If Beaumont's win was a statement of resilience, then Thailand's Thanapol Seekao continued to make an altogether different kind of statement in Group 3 — one of sheer, relentless dominance. The two-time world champion and 2023 World Abilitysport Games gold medallist dropped just two frames across six matches before defeating India's Shayan Shetty 2-0 in the final. Shetty, no stranger to the occasion, had faced Seekao in the 2025 World Championship final and found the outcome no different this time around. Seekao remains unbeaten in WDBS competition — a record that, at this point, feels less like a statistic and more like a force of nature.
Thailand had further cause for celebration in Group 5, where Songkiat Raebankoo extended his own remarkable streak of winning every WDBS event he has entered. Raebankoo, who successfully defended his World Championship title on home soil in June, reached the Shanghai final despite a 2-1 group stage defeat to England's world number two Dalton Lawrence — a result that briefly threatened to make things complicated. It didn't. In the final, Raebankoo met China's Lu Yun, making his WDBS debut after a clean sweep of group victories, and dispatched him 2-0. Another tournament, another gold.
Piscador Makes History While Wang Delights the Home Crowd
Not every story in Shanghai was about defending a legacy. Belgium's Yannick Piscador wrote a new chapter entirely in Group 4, claiming the first WDBS title of his career at the sixth attempt. The 37-year-old had been the standout performer throughout the five-player competition, winning every group stage match before meeting China's Zhang Zhongqiang in the final. Zhang, making his WDBS debut, had done remarkably well to reach the title match, but Piscador was not to be denied. A 2-0 win sealed a moment that, after five previous near-misses, must have felt enormously sweet.
And then there was the moment the Shanghai crowd had been waiting for. In Group 6A, Wang Jiaqui won his maiden WDBS title on home soil, defeating compatriot Yang Junhui in an all-Chinese final that brought the local contingent to their feet. For a tournament that had also spent the week running taster sessions to grow disability snooker's grassroots presence in China, it was the perfect ending — a home champion, a growing sport, and a city that had just discovered something worth following.
More Than a Tournament
Disability snooker does not always command the column inches it deserves. Events like Shanghai — built on genuine international collaboration, alive with competition, and anchored by players of real world-class quality — are a reminder of what the sport looks like when it gets everything right. Six classifications. Six champions. One very good day for the game.
