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Last year, professional snooker player Mark Williams was inches away from hanging up the stick. Now he’s letting it hang out after winning the World Snooker Championship against world #1 player John Higgins 18-16.
In 2017, the 43-year-old failed to qualify for this tournament, hadn’t won a ranking event since 2011, and was contemplating retirement before his wife Joanne pushed him to keep at it. Williams agreed, but was so unconvinced that he would return to his 2003 form (in which he won a World Championship) that he made a promise: if he won a world title this year (the third of his career), he would address the media totally naked.
Williams has now become the oldest champion since Ray Reardon in 1978 after winning a wild match that required 34 of the maximum 35 frames to reach a decision.
After the win, in which he raked in $575,000 in winnings, Williams approached the press podium in a towel before stripping naked to answer the media’s questions with an awkward smile.
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“Two months ago I was thinking about chucking it in and here I am now, bollock naked, doing an interview having just won the 2018 world championship, beating John Higgins 18-16. Where’s it come from?”
On top of winning the sports highest honor, Williams also won the Northern Ireland Open and German Masters this season.
[h/t Business Insider]