Photo: DerHexer via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped. This adapted image is also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Neil Robertson has won the Welsh Open, holding off Stuart Bingham 9-7 in Cardiff on Sunday night. It's the plant-based Australian's second Welsh Open title, 12 years after his first, and the 15th ranking title of his career.
Robertson led 7-3 and looked to be cruising before Bingham, the 2015 world champion, won four frames in a row to level at 7-7. One of those frames lasted 46 minutes. Robertson kept his nerve and wrapped it up with a break of 83.
That wasn't even the only highlight of his week. On Tuesday he made a maximum 147 against Jordan Brown in the first round, the fourth of his career, on his way to a 4-1 win. He tweeted afterwards:
Awesome feeling and very unexpected to make the 147 tonight! Really made it special that Willie Thorne was doing the commentary and great touch from him to wait for me afterwards.
Robertson moved to a fully plant-based diet in late 2014, after months of reading about it and talking to fellow pro Peter Ebdon. He won the UK Championship the following year. He still doesn't call himself vegan, mainly because he hasn't been able to find snooker shoes without leather, but nothing from an animal goes on his plate. He told Great Vegan Athletes how his day starts:
I always start the day with a carrot juice with my juicer followed by a 6 banana smoothie with half a bag of kale for breakfast. I bring another smoothie with me to the club which has another 6 bananas in it mixed with some other fruit. When I get home I make a salad and for dinner usually a pasta or rice dish.
Robertson opened this season by winning the Riga Masters, and last month plant-based Novak Djokovic thrashed Nadal to win a record seventh Australian Open. If anyone still thinks you need meat to perform under pressure, our post on where vegans get their protein is a good place to start.
Twelve bananas, half a bag of kale and a 147. Powered by plants.