The rise and rise of Thailand’s Nutcharut ‘Mink’ Wongharuthai, the women’s snooker world champion ready to rival the men
- Mink has already made history as having the first official 147 maximum break recorded by a woman
- The 22-year-old learned the game while waiting for her mum, who worked as a cashier in a snooker hall
![Nutcharut ‘Mink’ Wongharuthai practises at Bangkok’s Hi-End Snooker Club days after winning the World Women’s Snooker Championship. Photo: Vijitra Duangdee](https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/1020x680/public/d8/images/canvas/2022/03/02/d10fc603-2ca9-4740-8912-491c7424b082_80cda732.jpg?itok=7iDLJ3vK&v=1646183260)
As a child, Nutcharut ‘Mink’ Wongharuthai reluctantly hung around after school waiting for her mum to finish working at a Thai snooker hall. But fast forward a dozen years and the 22-year-old is now the world women’s snooker champion – an unlikely sporting ascent which has put her firmly in the frame as a new rival to the men.
Mink became the first Thai to claim the championship when she beat Belgian veteran Wendy Jans 6-5 on February 15, holding her nerve to take the last frame on the final black.
But her meteoric career – which also already includes a youth championship win and the first official 147 maximum break recorded by a woman – has turned on coincidence as much as dedication in a sport which in Thailand is associated with boozy, smoke-filled snooker rooms dominated by men with a fondness for gambling.
![A young Nutcharut ‘Mink’ Wongharuthai with her first coach ‘Big Saraburi’ in 2014. Photo: Handout A young Nutcharut ‘Mink’ Wongharuthai with her first coach ‘Big Saraburi’ in 2014. Photo: Handout](https://img.i-scmp.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2022/03/02/02eac3c5-97f5-4fd4-8b2b-cfb54300bbcd_40091ad6.jpg)
“I was about 10 and my mum was a cashier at a snooker hall in Saraburi. The bar owner saw that I was bored after school so he taught me how to play,” Mink said.
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