Lefties rule Graded finals

15th December, K.Lumpur: Left-handers dominated the Youth Graded Masters finals of the 12th MILO International Junior All-Stars Bowling Championship by taking up the top three positions in the Boy's division.

Boy's Under-15 second runnerup, Tan Gian Yion of Anglo-Chinese Independant got off to a splendid start to lead the field of 32 finalists after the first 3-game series, 16 pins ahead of Jaya Ancol Bowl's Rifif Santoso in second.

Despite following it up with 269, 246 and 209 in his second 3-game series, Tan had to trail Rafif after the Indonesian rolled the seventh perfect 300 in game 5 following a 268 in the fourth and 196 in the sixth game.

The 14-year-old Singapore youngster slipped back with 171 in the seventh game allowing Rafif to extend his lead but bounced back with 268 and 256 in the eighth and ninth games to narrow the gap to just 2 pins.

The champion blazed the lanes with a stunning 289 to snatch victory with 2415 while Rafif ended with 224 to settle for second spot with 2352, 63 pins adrift.

 

A third left-hander, Ervin Lim of Sarawak clinched third spot with 2284 completing the top 3 positions all being left-handers.

Tan pocketed the top prize of RM12,000 for his win while Rafif took home RM6,000 as first runner-up. Ervin won RM3,000 for finishing third. All the winners also walked away with a Masters bowling shoe and a Quantum pendant courtesy of FusionExcel.

Malaysian youths finally broke the stronghold of Singapore after Nazira Bte Nasir of Pahang bagged the Girl's Graded Masters title with 2189 pinfalls. Anis Shazlin of Premium Lanes, Penang finished second with 2138.

A further 91 pins came Nurul Atiqah Ahmad of Johor, who took third spot with 2098. Nazira, a law student at UiTM got off to a superb start reeling in 234, 257, 233 and 237 in her first four games.

Although the 18-year-old managed only 180, 194 and 192 in her next three games, her lead never looked threaten as she went on to capture the crown with 248, 200 and 214. Nazira won RM6,000 as champion with Anis and Nurul settling for RM3,000 and RM2,000 respectively.

 

Singapore's Desiree Sim of PBC, Kwa Lay Teng of NSRCC and Rachel Koh only managed to finish fith to seventh positions while the other two Singaporeans Tay Hui Wen and Crystal Kiew Yanni took ninth and tenth positions.

Detailed scores: Boy's Graded Masters | Girl's Graded Masters |

Photos by Terence Yaw at Sunway Mega Lanes.