Singaporean eying another gold
19th November, Jakarta: Two gold medalist, Cherie Tan is eying for her third gold after completing the Women's first block Masters finals of the 26th SEA Games Tenpin Bowling Championship just 3 pins from leader, Zandra Aziela of Malaysia. Singles silver medalist, Sin Li Jane set a cracking pace winning the first three matches of the round-robin matchplay finals against her team-mates with lines of 224, 233 and 228 to open up a 44 pin lead over Cherie Tan of Singapore in second.
The 20-year-old Li Jane had her lead reduced slightly to 30 pins after she lost her fourth match despite rolling a superb 221. Cherie continued to trail the leader with no real challenges coming from the other finalists.
The Malaysian leader won her next two matches to remain in the lead and keeping a decent margin over her nearest opponent as her team-mates, Sharon Koh and Zandra Aziela made good progress to reduce the gap.
Cherie also suffered a set back after she lost her seventh match with 190. Sharon shot 202 but lost to Shayna Ng dropping her down to third.
Zandra won her eighth match with 228 to take over the lead with 1772 from five wins. Cherie bounced back to also win her last match with 231 to claim second spot with 1769, just 3 pins adrift.
"I'm comfortable in both the long and short oil condition so it's good to be close to the leader in this block," said the 23-year-old Guangzhou Asian Games Trios gold medalist, Cherie Tan.
"There is still another 8 games tomorrow over the short oil pattern and I'm confident that I'll have no major problems. Hopefully I can make the top 3 stepladder."
Daphne Tan, who could have finished higher than fifth if not for a low game in the last match, won five and drew one match with Cherie to amassed a total of 1676. Shayna finished sixth with 1664.
Another two gold medalist, Jazreel Tan got off the blocks poorly in her first three matches but rallied on strongly to finish seventh with 1635 from five wins. New Hui Fen was tenth with 1603 while Jasmine Yeong-Nathan took 14th position.
Meanwhile, the two Singaporeans in the finals, Ng Tiac Pin and Keith Saw never got into their strides coming home 12th and 15th positions with 1602 and 1537 respectively. Filipinos dominated the first block after Singles gold medalist, Frederick Ong topped the block with 1849.
Ong won seven matches and although he lost the last match, the 29-year-old Filipino still posted a decent 227. His team-mate and Guangzhou Asian Games Singles gold medalist, Biboy Rivera took second spot with 1806 from six wins.
Muhd Syafiq Ridhwan was Malaysia's best performer finishing third with 1767 from five wins. Zulmazran Zulkifli and Adrian Ang took fourth and fifth positions with 1755 and 1732 while Raoul Miranda, who was third before the last match, slipped down to sixth.
The women and men will resume with the second block of 7 matches and the final position round match to determine to top 3 advancing to the stepladder finals. The second seed and third seed to bowl one match to see who will advance to face the top seed over a 2-game total pinfalls.
Detailed scores: Women's Masters Block 1 | Men's Masters Block 1 |
Photos by Terence Yaw in Jakarta.