A splendid second for Singaporean
2nd July, Macau: Singapore's prolific national bowler, Remy Ong ended the first round of the Men's Open Masters finals at the 2nd Macau China International Open with a splendid second on Friday. Remy Ong got off to a decent start with an opening game of 213 as ex-Thai national, Surasak Manuwong scorched the lanes to take pole position with a scintilating 276 ahead of China's Zhu Jun He in second.
While Surasak set a cracking pace to lead for the next two games, Ong suffered two sub-200 games to slip down the field rapidly. Zulmazran's consistent games allowed the Malaysian to lead the field at the halfway point.
Ong recovered with two strong 254 and 255 to move back up the field as the Malaysian began to stretch his lead to a comfortable 81 pins from another Thai, Yannaphon Larpapharat in second.
Zulmazran ended the round with 1827 to finish atop and Ong stormed home to snatch a splendid second with 1774. Yannaphon ended weeker to settle for third position with 1734 while early leader, Surasak finished fourth with 1726.
"I made a bad call in the second and third game so I changed by ball to tackle the fast changing conditions," said Remy Ong relieved of the position he ended with. "I had to continually made adjustments and fortunately ended well.
Meanwhile in the women's division, Cherie Tan had the best start with an opening game of 245 to lead the field but could not sustain the blistering pace set by defending champion, Kim Hyun-Mi of Korea.
The 23-year-old Korean National Sports University student led for most part the the first round finals until the seventh game when Malaysia's Sharon Koh took over the running. Geraldine Ng had a superb run and was second to the Korean.
But Ng too dropped her pace towards the end to settle for a creditable fourth with 1671. Kim finished in pole with 1706, a comfortable 33 pins ahead of joint-second, Lee Mi-Ryung of Korea and Putty Armein of Indonesia on 1673.
Sharon Koh and Sharon Limansantoso of Indonesia finished behind Ng in fifth and sixth positions with 1664 and 1647. Cherie Tan ended in 11th position with 1591 but could still be in the running for a spot in the top 6 with only 46 pins adrift.
Jasmine Yeong-Nathan had inconsistent lines to finish a lowly 18th position and will need a good second round in an attempt to haul herself up the field.
The women will resume with their second round tomorrow morning at 9.00am during which the top 6 after the 16-games will advance to the stepladder finals. The men will contest their Round 2 in the afternoon.
Detailed scores: Men's Open Round 1 Finals | Women's Open Round 1 Finals | Photo Album.
Photos by Terence Yaw in Macau.