Thailand have resisted a strong challenge from England at the top of the 2010 IBSF World rankings, with China completing the strongest trio of competing nations over the two year ranking cycle.

Ireland, India and Wales make up the next closest group of three, which complete the half dozen teams who have amassed over 100 ranking points.

Noteable also in their achievements are China Hong Kong who come in at number 7, the UAE at number 9 and Iran who shoot up to number 15.

Austria 2008 was a particularly good year for Thailand, as Thepchaiya Un-Nooh swept away all opposition to take the IBSF Men’s title, defeating Ireland’s Colm Gilchreest in the final.

Un-Nooh also made the highest break of the championships with a magnificent 143 total clearance, as well as the most centuries (jointly with Gilchreest at three) and the highest number of breaks over fifty (twenty seven). This total domination of the IBSF Men’s Championship now cement Thailand as not only an Asian force in the game, but also world leaders.

Another notable achievement during the championships was Iran’s Soheil Vahedi, the nineteen year old who recorded a simply tremendous semi final spot, narrowly losing to Gilchreest 7-5 in the semi final. Vahedi’s flowing game and excellent cue action showed remarkable maturity for someone his age, and the fact he has recorded many 147 maximum breaks in practice show that Iran is a snooker force to be reckoned with on the future world stage.

Thailand’s continued dominance of the rankings shows their strength in depth of players. After all, it has not been easy to resist the onslaught on England who have taken both the ladies and men’s titles in 2008 and 2009 at the hands of Reanne Evans and Alfie Burden respectively.

Strong ladies performances in both the Austrian championships and those in India in 2009 helped Hong Kong and India maintain strong overall rankings. In their cases, six and seven players respectively from those countries achieved last 16 berths, with a 2009 win in the case of Hong Kong’s Ng On Yee, across the two tournaments.

Brazil, thanks to the outstanding and charismatic performance of Igor Figueiredo in reaching the 2009 IBSF Men’s championship final in India, have jumped from a non ranked position to number eighteen in the space of one year. Losing out to Alfie Burden 10-8 in the final was surely disappointing for the Brazilian, but he should take heart from the fact that he had only progressed from the smaller Brazilian snooker table six months before his participation. To come that close to beating a former top 32 ranked professional is surely a sign of even great things to come from this South American powerhouse.

With a new IBSF 6 Red event in the offing, the packed IBSF calendar over the next couple of years will provide the 74 IBSF Member countries plenty of opportunity to compete and win – bit will any be able to stop Thailand’s attempt to become the first country in the history of the IBSF Rankings to stay on top for three consecutive years?...