Singapore bounches back to win second gold
18th November, Jakarta: After finishing second best in the last two events, Singapore women bounced back with an emphatic victory in the 5-player Team event of the 26th SEA Games Tenpin Bowling Championship and won their second gold medal.
Cherie Tan, New Hui Fen, Jasmine Yeong-Nathan, Shayna Ng and Jazreel Tan, who led the first block of 3 games over the short oil pattern after rolling 1048, 1059 and a near record-breaking 1153 to open up a 326 pins lead over host nation, Indonesia.
The Singapore women continued with their relentless pace knocking down 1054 in their fourth game when the 5-player team event resumed after the break on the long oil pattern and increasing their lead to 386 pins.
Another superb 1044 put the leader 480 pins well ahead of the Indonesians while Thailand and Malaysia were battling for the minor places.
Singapore, who had Daphne Tan replacing Jasmine Yeong-Nathan in the second block, eased off with 974 in their final game to end the block with 6332 and winning the Team gold after an absent of 20 years. The last time Singapore women won the Team event was at the 1991 Manila SEA Games.
"After having built up a comfortable lead in the first block, all of us were completely at ease in the second block which allowed us to focus on the job," said anchorwomen, Jazreel Tan, who turned in another awesome 1320 6-game series.
"We not only let ourselves down in the last two events but we let our country down as well after having led almost all the way but lost the Doubles and the Trios gold in the final game. This made us more determined and not to let this one slip away from us again.
"I'm glad we've now met our target of winning the Team event. But it was not just down to me. All of us played a part. Cherie was fantastic scoring the highest 6-game series of 1347."
Guangzhou Asian Games Team silver medalist and host nation, finally delivered their first medal of the competition by winning the silver medal with 5846. Malaysia, who was fourth before the last game, snatched the bronze medal with 5788.
Thailand ended their last game with a disasterous 838 to drop out of the podium with 5696 while Philippines finished fifth and last. Jazreel, Cherie and Shayna finished in the top 3 of the All Events with 5196, 5015 and 4948 respectively.
Jasmine, Hui Fen and Daphne finished in seventh, eighth and tenth positions to qualify for the Masters finals making Singapore the only country to have all the six players in the finals.
Meanwhile, Singapore men almost claimed their first medal but had to settle for fourth best after totaling 5787. Malaysia's Adrian Ang, Alex Liew, Muhd Syafiq Ridhwan (alternating with Muhd Nur Aiman), Zulmazran Zulkifli and Aaron Kong cruised to a comfortable victory for their third gold.
The champion downed 6241 pinfalls, 209 pins ahead of the Philippines, who won their third silver with 6032. The Indonesian men also delivered their first medal of the competition after they finished third with 5873 for the bronze medal.
Ng Tiac Pin was Singapore's best performer after he ended the 24-games, fourth in the All Events standings. Debutant Keith Saw will join Tiac Pin in the Masters finals having qualified in 13th position.
Jason Yeong-Nathan missed the cut in 17th position with 4725, just 4 pins off 16th-placed Badin Lerdpiriyasakulkit of Thailand. Ng Chiew Pang finished 25th, Basil Low 29th and Eugene Low 31st.
The top 16 women and top 16 men will contest the Round-robin Masters finals over two blocks of 8 games on Saturday and Sunday. The top 3 women and top 3 men at the end of finals will advance t the stepladder grand finals.
Singapore topped the Women's medal table with a haul of 2-2-2 but is second in the overall standings behind Malaysia, who has amassed 4-2-4. Philippines is third with 1-3-1.
Detailed scores: Women's Team Block 2 | Men's Team Block 2 |
Photos by Terence Yaw in Jakarta.