Sheffield student chosen to conduct coin toss at Sunday's World Snooker Championship final
A Sheffield student has been invited to kick off proceedings during this weekend’s highly-anticipated finale at the Crucible
Sheffield student and aspiring artist Amy Chen has been chosen to conduct the all-important coin toss at this Sunday’s World Snooker Championship final at The Crucible.
In snooker, a coin toss takes place to decide which player breaks first with the winner getting to choose the order of play. It’s normally something that’s conducted by the referee before each clash, but on this occasion will be overseen by Amy making it a hugely exciting moment for her and her family.
Amy, a Year 12 student at Sheffield Girls’ GDST has been given the special award for her portrait of Neil Robertson at this month’s Sheffield Young Artists’ exhibition.
Explaining her artwork, Amy said: “Taking part in the snooker player portraits competition has been an incredible opportunity for me to explore my passion for art and present my talent to younger, aspiring artists to encourage them to pursue their developing creativity.
“The coin toss for the World Finals is a very exciting and new experience for me, which I am thrilled to be a part of. This experience has left me more inspired to improve as an artist and be more confident in my work.”
Amy used oil paint with carefully layered, naturalistic flesh tones to achieve a hyper-realistic finish when painting Robertson.
“My focus was on capturing fine details, subtle tonal transitions, and the precise play of light across the skin to enhance the lifelike quality for the piece. Through this work, I refined my technique for painting intricate details,” Amy added.
Robertson won the Snooker World Championship in 2010 and competed in this year’s edition. However, he won’t be involved in the showpiece event at the weekend after falling short against four-time champion John Higgins in the quarter-final stage.
Similarly, big names like defending champion Zhao Xintong, Mark Selby and Ronnie O’Sullivan all also failed to make it into the semi-final stage of the competition.