Third shot at gold
30th June, Bangkok: Perhaps it will be third time lucky for Singapore as New Hui Fen, Ilma Nur Jannah, Krishna Darshini and Bernice Lim advanced into the 4-player Team semi-finals of the 12th World Youth Championships 2012 as No. 2 seed on Saturday. New Hui Fen, Ilma Nur Jannah, Krishna Darshini and Bernice Lim, who led the first block over the medium oil condition, managed to grind out a decent performance to finish second at the end of the second block over the slightly challenging long oil condition.
The Singaporean quartet amassed a total of 4877 to slip behind Korea’s Kim Ga-Ram, Kim Seon-Jeong, Hwang Yeon-Ju and Oh Nuri, who posted 5037 to advance into the semi-finals as No. 1 seed.
The mighty Koreans also erased the one-game record of 925 set by Malaysia in 1998 with 970 in the opening game of this block. England improved from seventh to take up third spot with 4818.
Team USA claimed the fourth and last spot of the semi-finals elimination round with 4790 edging out the fancied Malaysia into fifth position.
Korea will square off with United States in the first semi-final match while Singapore, who has had one semi-final appearance, will again have a second shot at the title when they meet England in the other semi.Hwang Yeon-Ju and Kim Seon-Jeong of Korea won the gold and bronze medals after finishing first and third with 3871 and 3757 in the All Events while New Hui Fen won the first silver for Singapore with 3755.
Doubles bronze medalist, Jacqueline Sijore of Malaysia was edged out of the All Events top 3 position after Kim Seon-Jeong shot 279 in her final game of the Team event as she managed only 183.
Singapore and USA have all four girls in the top 24 Step 1 finals. Korean, Japan and Malaysia have three each. Colombia has two while Israel, Latvia, Philippines, Russia and Sweden all have one each.
The Team semi-finals will be contested July 1 and the Step 1 Masters finals for the top 24 finishers in the All Events will be staged on July 2. The top 8 at the end of the Step 1 finals will advance to the top 8 Step 2 finals on July 3.
Detailed scores: Girl’s Team Block 2 | Photo Album.Photos by Terence Yaw in Bangkok.