World champion Luca Brecel is excited to be among those looking to complete the first ever 167 break after the new golden ball was introduced at Saudi Arabia’s first professional snooker event this week.

The opening season of the Riyadh World Masters of Snooker offers players the chance to win a prize of $500,000 if they can complete a maximum 147 and then pot the golden ball.

The golden ball, worth 20 points, sits on the top cushion during the frame for as long as a player can still complete a maximum and is removed when the chance is gone.

The event, which runs until Wednesday, features players such as Ronnie O’Sullivan, Shaun Murphy, Mark Williams and Ding Junhui.

“Yeah, it’s exciting the golden ball. Obviously it’s a big prize and well, it’s going to be very difficult. It’s a nice challenge and I’d love to have a go at it. Even if I don’t make it I would just like to have a try,” Brecel told Reuters on Tuesday.

“The 147 in itself is really difficult but now you need to be perfect on the black as well to go to the golden ball which is even more difficult.” Former world champion Judd Trump is also enjoying the challenge.

“It’s something cool. I think it’s always good to kind of push new ideas and I think the challenge of making a different break, a 167 here, would be very special,” Trump said.

“I think the 167 is just that little bit harder now and with that comes a bigger prize. So, I think that 167 is very special for the first time.”

Following the announcement last month of the creation of a Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters which will become the ‘fourth major’, Brecel said it was good to see the sport expanding into new countries.

“(It’s) very good for us and for snooker. It’s nice to be able to come to these countries and hopefully maybe Qatar and Dubai will follow and in the future maybe go up to the U.S. as well and make snooker really, really big in all the countries in the world,” he said.

With a 10-year deal agreed, the tournament’s first edition will take place in Riyadh from Aug. 31 to Sept. 7. It will be a ranking event open to all tour players, plus six local wild cards. 

A total of 326,000 tickets are set to be sold or given away for the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics on the River Seine, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said Tuesday, giving the exact number for the first time. Security fears have seen the size of the waterborne parade dramatically reduced.

“We will have 104,000 spectators on the lower bank who have paid for a ticket,” Darmanin told a hearing in the Sénat. “Then you have 222,000 people on the higher banks (with free tickets).”

Darmanin estimated that another 200,000 people would watch the event along the river from buildings that overlook the Seine, with an additional 50,000 in fan-zones in the capital.

Resistance from French security services and worries about potential terror attacks saw the number of spectators downgraded from as many as two million people.

However the event is still set to break records in terms of its size, with all previous opening ceremonies taking place in an athletics’ stadium.

The open-air ceremony on boats is in keeping with promises to make the Paris Olympics “iconic”, with the local organising committee keen to break from past traditions in the way it stages the world’s biggest sporting event.

A total of 180 boats are set to sail around six kilometres down the Seine, of which 94 will contain athletes, the top security official for the Paris region, Marc Guillaume, told the same hearing.

Darmanin added: “No country has informed us that they do not want to take part … They have confidence in our organisation.”

Special security

The executive in charge of planning and risk management at the Paris organising committee told AFP last week that special security measures would be considered for high-risk delegations such as those from the US or Israel.

“Every delegation has its own unique circumstances, and we’ll look at solutions that are adapted to the risk,” Lambis Konstantinidis said.

The Olympics have been targeted with attacks in the past, notably Munich in 1972 and Atlanta in 1996.

France was placed on its highest alert for terror attacks in October after a suspected Islamist burst into a school in northern France and stabbed a teacher to death.

The country has been consistently targeted by Islamic extremists over the last decade, particularly from the Islamic State group, while Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza is seen as exacerbating domestic tensions.

Around a million people are set to be screened in advance by French security forces for possible security risks, including the athletes, journalists, private security guards and people who live close to key infrastructure. 

 Son Heung-min and Yves Bissouma returned to Tottenham Hotspur this week from international duty, and both are ready for Spurs’ game with Brighton & Hove Albion, manager Ange Postecoglou said on Friday.

Son was involved with South Korea at the Asian Cup where they lost to Jordan in the semi-final on Tuesday while Bissouma’s Mali exited the Africa Cup of Nations last weekend at the quarter-final stage.

Spurs, fifth in the standings on 44 points, host Brighton on Saturday, with Roberto De Zerbi’s side in eighth place on 35 points.

“Sonny and Biss they trained well. Sonny did recovery on Thursday and trained today,” Postecoglou told a press conference.

“He is very disappointed for Korea’s exit, at the semi-final stage you feel so close. But he gave everything for his nation, no-one could question his commitment.

“I spoke to him after and he was keen to be back, so no surprise he was back training straight away.”

The manager also played down concerns over Bissouma, after media reports that he had played through the illness with malaria at the tournament.

“No, that’s not right. He had a slight form of malaria before the tournament, but it cleared up by the start of tournament. He’s 100 percent now.”

Manor Solomon hasn’t played since September and Postecoglou confirmed that the winger had another procedure on his knee earlier this week and is still another two or three weeks away from a return.

Another injury concern was Giovani Lo Celso who missed the last three league games for Spurs.

“Lo Celso trained all week but he’s missed a fair bit of football so we’ll see whether he needs another week or not,” the manager said.

“It’s probably, for want of a better word, the healthiest squad we’ve had for quite a while anyway.”

Spurs conceded an added-time equaliser at Everton last weekend and lost to a late Nathan Ake goal against Manchester City in the FA Cup, but conceding late is not something that overly concerns their manager.

“It’s disappointing to concede goals at any point. People will want to analyse it,” Postecoglou said.

“I’m sorry but we’re going to be a team that will score or concede goals late. The way we want to close out games is by trying to score goals late on.

“One thing we’re not going to do is jump at shadows and try to fix the latest thing being analysed.”