A tall order for Singaporeans
25th May, Hong Kong: It will be a tall order for Singapore to salvage a medal from the last event of the 11th Asian Schools Tenpin Bowling Championship after the girls only managed 10th, 11th and 14th in the first block Masters finals. Edyln Kwok, who is the only Singaporean competing in her second Asian Schools meet, had an eratic first half with 182, 210, 170 and 215 but bowled better in the second half with 244, 188, 221 and 205 to end with 1685.
Despite winning five of the eight round-robin matches played, Kowk was unable to finish better than 10th position. The promising Celine Mok started off well with back-to-back 210s but fell shot thereafter to take 11th position with 1673 and winning only 3 matches.
Genevieve Gan's eight games were 232, 178, 193, 217, 177, 226, 146 and 202 for a total of 1601 from three wins to end up in 14th position.
Korea's debutant, Han Kyeo Rae of Team 2 snatched pole in the final game from fellow-compatriot and Doubles gold medalist, Sim Ui Jin of Team 1 with a total of 1846. Despite winning the same number of matches as Han, Sim had to settle for second with 1820.
Team gold medalist, Rebecca Whiting of Australia, who led for two games midway through the eighth games, finished third with 1813.
Korea dominated the Masters finals after Park Jong Woo of Team 1 topped the boy's division with 1975, just 8 pins ahead of team-mate, Lim Dong Sung of Team 2, who amassed 1967. Park won seven and drew one match while Lim won six.
Two silver and Team gold medalist, Daisuke Yoshida of Japan will be gunning to win his first individual gold medal after finishing third with 1901. No Singaporean made the boy's finals.
The finalists will bowl another 7 games plus a position round tomorrow where the top 3 will advance into the stepladder finals for the final two gold medals. Japan will most likely win the overall title with a medal haul of 5-3-1. Korea can make a bid for the title if their boys and girls can win the last two gold medals at stake.
Detailed scores: Girl's Masters Block 1 | Boy's Masters Block 1.Photos by Terence Yaw for SBF.