Singapore seals victory in final game

3rd December, Macau: Singapore sealed victory at the final game of the Women's Team event to clinch their first gold medal of the 22nd Asian Intercity Tenpin Bowling Championship on Wednesday evening. Denise Chan Jie Lin, Darshini Krishna, Genevieve Gan Hui Ying and anchored by Singles bronze medalist, New Hui Fen were trailing first block leader, Pasay City by 21 pins before the start of the second block.

A good opening game of 755 by the Singaporean quartet, moved them closer to the leader Pasay City and narrowed the gap to just 11 pins as Angeli Lao, Sheena Go, Kathlynn-Ann Lopez and Ditas Red knocked down 745.

Both Pasay City and Singapore bowled an average game of 722 and 712 as Paranaque made their bid for the gold with a scintilating 831 to move ahead of the Singaporeans. Pasay managed to keep the lead but just 16 pins ahead of Paranaque and 20 pins ahead of Singapore.   The final game was tense as bowlers from both Pasay City and Paranaque was feeling the pressure after the Singapore quartet went on a strike fest. A superb final game of 777 by Singapore gave them the gold medal with 4546.

Paranaque and Pasay City were left battling for the silver. Yap Seok Kim shot 162, Lucy Cheng 160 but thanks to Liza Clutario's 191 and Cecilia Yap's 232, Paranaque clinched the silver with a team total of 4518. Pasay City settled for the bronze medal with 4504 and Daegu come home fourth with 4436 missing the podium. Happy Valley, who was third in the first block, ended up in fifth position.

"We knew we were close after the fifth game and had a chance to win the gold so we urged each other on in the final game," said the delighted anchorwomen for Singapore, New Hui Fen. "My teammates gave me lots of encouragement when I shot a bad game in the fifth and I'm really really glad for them."

Paranaque City looked set to regain the overall champion title they won in 2006 after winning their third gold medal from the Women's All Events. Cecilia Yap topped the table with 3841 over 18 games and Liza Clutario finished third to take the bronze medal with 3591.   New Hui Fen's superb run in the team event gave her 3596 to edge Clutario for the silver medal. Daegu's Sin Hae Young finished fourth with 3553. Macau's Filomena Choi finished 16th to squeeze into the Masters finals with a total of 3317 and an average of 184.28.

Host city has three Macau women in the finals. Singles silver medalist, Chan Weng Sum and Alexandra Foo Cheuk Ling were the other two. Singapore and Macau were the only two cities that have three finalists while Paranaque, Daegu, Pasay, Happy Valley and Uiwang has two each.

Detailed scores: Women's Team 2nd Block | Women's All Events. Photos by Terence Yaw in Macau.