A near miss for Singaporean

17th December, Doha: Lionel Lim of Singapore had a near miss to make the cut for the Stage 1 finals of the 9th Qatar International Open Bowling Championship on the final qualifying squad on Thursday. The 25-year-old national bowler started off slow with 189 but bounced back stronger with 234 and 223 for 46 pins over midway through his final qualifying round. Lim build up to 67 pins over with 221 in the fourth game and up to 103 pins over by the fifth.

Looking good to make the finals and needing only 193 or better, Lim came to a pair of lanes that he simply just could not get a double strike and ended his effort with a clean game of 190 to miss the cut by just 3 pins on a score of 1293.

Newly-crowned QubicaAMF World Cup champion, Caroline Lagrange of Canada topped the squad with 1328 to make the cut in 18th position overall. Robert Anderssen of Sweden had two massive games to also advance with 1300 in 35th position.   Both last squad qualifiers knocked out Malaysia's Aaron Kong, who was 37th with 1295 and Bahrain's Yousif Falah, who was 38th with 1292. But Yousif still made the cut by occupying third in the Day 2 seeded pool. Australia's George Frilingos, who had a higher final game with his 1295 score, made the final and 38th position for the Stage 1 finals. Three bowlers also made the finals in the earlier Squad 15.

Singapore's Remy Ong was a bit unlucky when he slipped down to seventh position overall after Martin Larsen of Sweden shot a record-breaking 1540 in Squad 14 to take over the top spot. Denmark's Jimmy Mortensen and Britt Brondsted also made into the top six after shooting 1390 and 1384 respectively.

Ong now has to contest the Stage 2 finals as he head the next 6 highest qualifiers (positions 7 to 12). Newly-crowned national champion, Lee Yu Wen squeezed in at 37th position with 1298 while Lionel Lim and Jason Yeong-Nathan failed to make the finals.     Photos by Terence Yaw in Doha.