| Lim Kok Leong | |
| Sport Country: | Malaysia |
| Professional: | 2024–present |
| High Ranking: | 108 (July 2024) |
| Best Finish: | Last 64 (2024 British Open) |
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.
In May 2022 he was runner-up to James Wattana at the delayed 2021 Southeast Asian Games snooker tournament.[1] 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.[2] 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.[3]
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.[4] He became the first Malaysian snooker player to win the amateur title.[5]
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.[6]
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.[7] The tour card has only been used twice: these were the qualifying rounds for the 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.
He is a twice winner of the International Billiards and Snooker Federation (ISBF) World Team Championships.[8] In 2015 Lim Kok Leong won the partnered with Moh Keen Hoo, in Karachi, Pakistan after a narrow 5-4 win in the final over home team Asjad Iqbal and Shahid Aftab.[9] In 2019 he and Moh Keen Ho won gold at the Southeast Asian Games defeating Philippines’ Alvin Barberro and Jefrey Roda 3-1 in the best-of-5 final.[10] In October 2022 he won the World Team Snooker Championship in Kuala Lumpur, again with Moh Keen Hoo. They beat Thai pair Kritsanut Lertsattayathorn-Jong and Rak Boonrod 4-2 in the final.[11] In May 2023 he was a silver medal winner at the 2023 SEA Games in Phnom Penh, losing with Moh Keen Hoo to Cambodian pair Suon Chhay and Men Sophanith in the final.[12]
| Performance Table Legend | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LQ | lost in the qualifying draw |
| lost in the early rounds of the tournament (WR = Wildcard round, RR = Round robin) | QF | lost in the quarter-finals | |
| SF | lost in the semi-finals | F | lost in the final | W | won the tournament | |
| DNQ | did not qualify for the tournament | A | did not participate in the tournament | WD | withdrew from the tournament | |
| NH / Not Held | means an event was not held. | ||||
| NR / Non-Ranking Event | means an event is/was no longer a ranking event. | ||||
| R / Ranking Event | means an event is/was a ranking event. | ||||
| MR / Minor-Ranking Event | means an event is/was a minor-ranking event. | ||||
| Outcome | No. | Year | Championship | Team/Partner | Score | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winner | 1. | 2019 | Southeast Asian Games | Moh Keen Hoo | Alvin Barbero Jefrey Roda | 3–1 | |
| Winner | 2. | 2022[16] | 1 Moh Keen Hoo |  2Kritsanut Lertsattayathorn Jongrak Boonrod | 4–2 | ||
| Runner-up | 1. | 2023 | Southeast Asian Games | Moh Keen Hoo | Men Sophanith Suon Chhay | 1–3 |
| Outcome | No. | Year | Championship | Opponent in the final | Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winner | 1. | 2021 | Southeast Asian Games (six-red) | Jefrey Roda | 5–3 | |
| Runner-up | 1. | 2021 | Southeast Asian Games | James Wattana | 2–4 |
| Outcome | No. | Year | Championship | Opponent in the final | Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winner | 1. | 2019 | Malaysian Amateur Championship | Hng Yuan Yew | 6–4 | |
| Winner | 2. | 2022 | Malaysian Amateur Championship (2) | Thor Chuan Leong | 8–5 | |
| Winner | 3. | 2022 | IBSF World Snooker Championship |  Amir Sarkhosh | 5–0 | |
| Winner | 4. | 2024 | Malaysian Amateur Championship (3) | Mohammed Reza Hassan | 8–2 |