Lim Kok Leong
Lim Kok Leong is a Malaysian professional snooker player. He won the 2022 IBSF [World Snooker Championship], and will compete as a professional on the World Snooker Tour as of the 2024-25 snooker season.
Career
Snooker
In May 2022 he was runner-up to James Wattana at the delayed 2021 Southeast Asian Games snooker tournament. His run to the final included a 4-0 semi-final win against Passakorn Suwanawat. He also won the Men's snooker 6-red singles at the same event. That win was reported to be on his 27th birthday, on 18 May 2022, and included a 5-3 win the final against Jeffrey Roda of the Philippines.In November 2022 he beat Amir Sarkhosh of Iran 5-0 in the final of the IBSF World Snooker Championship player in Antalya, Turkey. His run to the final included a 4-0 win over Eden Sharav. He became the first Malaysian snooker player to win the amateur title.
In May 2023 he was a bronze medal winner at the 2023 SEA Games, losing to Sunny Akani at the semi-final stage of the individual competition.
In May 2024, he defeated Liang Xiaolong to reach the final round of the Asian Q School in Bangkok, where he beat former professional Gao Yang 4-3 to secure a two-year card on the main WST Tour. The tour card has only been used twice: these were the qualifying rounds for the 2024 [Wuhan Open (snooker)|2024 Wuhan Open] and the 2024 British Open, from 28th July to 3rd August. Leong lost 1–5 to Dylan Emery in the Wuhan Open qualifiers, but defeated Anthony Hamilton by 4–1 in the British Open qualifiers, and would have played Mark Selby in the main stages of that event, but then withdrew from competing in any other event since. The reasons for the withdrawals are unknown, due to no statement from either the World Snooker Tour or the WPBSA, the governing body.
Competing at the 2025 SEA Games, he won the gold medal in the 6-red team event alongside Thor Chuan Leong and Moh Keen Hoo.