New world snooker champion Wu Yize's welcome home party partly cancelled due to overcrowding

Chinese 22-year-old Wu created history earlier this week when he ousted Shaun Murphy 18-17 in a thrilling final at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield to win his maiden world snooker championship title. It was the first time in 24 years that the final of the sport’s blue riband event had gone to a deciding frame.

Wu became the youngest non-British player to win the world crown, and the second youngest champion of all-time, only behind Stephen Hendry who was 21 when he claimed the first of his seven Crucible accolades in 1990.

Victory for Wu also represents back-to-back glories for his home country following Zhao Xintong’s breakthrough success on snooker’s grandest stage 12 months ago - the first Asian cueist in the history of the near 100-year competition to lift the famous trophy.

Since the annual Championship moved to the iconic Crucible venue in 1977, only six players from outside of the United Kingdom have won the title, and three of those have come within the last four editions. For the first time in the event’s history, there have been four new champions in as many years.

It has been an incredibly hectic time for Wu, who before this year’s staging had never won a match at the Crucible. Following the dramatic climax on Monday night in South Yorkshire, Wu had several immediate media engagements before attending the post-final party elsewhere in the city where he stayed until the early hours. The next morning, he was back at the Crucible by the stage door signing autographs for fans.

Fast forward a couple of days and Wu was back on home soil on the other side of the world at the packed-out TNT Billiards Club - one of Wu’s sponsors - in Xi’an where he received a rapturous hero’s welcome by fans.

Less than 72 hours on from his finest moment in the sport, Wu - who landed in China only the night before - was in attendance for a scheduled five-hour meet-and-greet consisting of autographs, photo opportunities, and trickshots.

There were three planned sessions, but according to the South China Morning Post who reported on the event and spoke with fans, the second of these was cancelled due to overcrowding before the third went ahead as planned.

Born in Lanzhou in the Gansu Province, Wu was due to play several lucky fans, but one attendee - as mentioned in the South China Morning Post piece - labelled the event as ‘a scam’, lambasting its chaotic organisation.

Some also mentioned how tired the new world champion looked; in his post-match interview with the BBC’s Hazel Irvine after the 17-day Crucible marathon, Wu talked about how he was looking forward to getting some rest - although that seems not to have properly happened, as yet.

From Xi’an, Wu travelled to Guangzhou for a CBSA Superstar Invitational Tournament alongside fellow star names Judd Trump, John Higgins, Mark Williams, and Mark Selby.

On Saturday, Wu played four-time world champion John Higgins at the exhibition event, losing 5-4 on his return to the green baize.