FORMER pro snooker player Kristjan Helgason will appear at next month's World Championship qualifiers in Sheffield as one of four players from the first ever WSF World Championships to receive the invitation.

It comes as Kacper Fillpiak, Adam Stefanow and China's 18-year-old Luo Honghao also get invited to the gruelling week long den of the qualifying where players have to face AND win three best of 19 matches in order to reach the holy grail of snooker at the Crucible.

Helgason is a former pro who is no slouch to World qualifiers.

Crucible Run Out

In 2000 he played five matches to get to the Crucible, where he got a Run Out as the only Icelandic player to have reached the iconic venue, but lost out in the first round proper to England's Stephen Lee 10 - 3.

Of course, we all know that 2000 was the year when a certain Mark Williams won his first World Championship and some 18 years on is still at the top of the tree when it comes to the rankings.

Adam Stefanow is a Polish snooker player, 24, and has also played in some pro events on the World Snooker tour.

The semi-finals of the WSF Championships (World Snooker Federation) come as the winner of the event will be given a two year tour card and will be competing against the World's current best.

Murphy Rewind

While that event is going on, the World Seniors Championship in Scunthorpe also sees the winner enter into the qualifiers in Sheffield for a chance of gaining a Crucible spot.

Stephen Hendry, the seven-times World Champion was knocked out of the Championship in the first round by World Seniors tour regular Jonathan Bagley in the first round 3 - 1.

Interestingly, the only Chinese player in Cao Kaisheng has done really well to get to the semi-finals of the event so far.

Incidentally, Shaun Murphy, currently competing in Wales in Llandudno for a whopping 125K first prize lost out in first round World qualifying that year 10 - 9.

On the road to the Crucible, Helgason had beaten the 1986 World Champion Joe Johnson in qualifying rounds.

Helgason's highest ranking was actually 66th but by the end of the 2003/4 season was 103rd and lost his pro ticket.

The WSF has seen a wide variety of countries compete, with player from Iceland, Poland, Malta, Ireland and China and the wide Asias as players across the globe dared to dream of jumping on a lucrative and ever-expanding pro circuit where in China next month players will be competing for a share of a total of £1 million pound prize money.

In fact, the winner of that pro event will trouser a staggering 225K.

That's before they compete in the big one for 425K!