Singapore youths sweep Under-16 titles
18th December, Penang: Indonesia Open first runnerup, Christopher Hwang and Asian Intercity Championship Masters gold medalist, New Hui Fen of Singapore, swept the Boy's and Girl's Under-16 Masters title of the 36th Penang Pesta International Open Thursday morning. Singapore youngster, Willie Quek set a cracking pace with 237 in the opening game to lead team-mate, Basil Low 6 pins ahead. Low then overpowered Quek to take over the running for the next two games.
A poor 172 from Low in the fourth game saw Perak's Mohamad Azlan grabbing the lead but just 1 pin ahead of the Singapore youth. Low regained the lead after a recovring 247 in the fifth and was looking set to take the title.
His other team-mate, Christopher Hwang was quietly closing in on the leaders and with 233, 196, 244 and 205 in the second half of the 8-game finals, Hwang was able to cruise to a comfortable victory with a total of 1678.
Low settled for second, 47 pins adrift on 1631 while Mohamad Azlan took third spot with 1619. Pace-setter, Willie Quek and Sarawak's Chong Jun Foo rounded up the top 5 and in the money with 1606 and 1560.
The Girl's Under-16 crown went to Asian Intercity Championship Masters gold medalist, New Hui Fen of Singapore who totaled 1657. A keen tussle for the lead was witnessed in the first half of the finals between New and Kedah's Tengku Aimi Laily.
New shot a low 159 in the sixth game to hand the running to Penang's Maisarah Bte Rozali but the Singapore youth bounced back with 258 and 247 to romp home to a comfortable victory, 63 pins ahead of her nearest rival.
Maisarah settled for second with 1594 while Singapore Sports Schools' Tan Yan Ling stormed home to snatch third spot with 1525. Tengku Aimi finished fourth with 1492.
Photos by Terence Yaw in Penang.