A third silver for Singapore
11th September, Hong Kong: Singapore capped off a stella performance with debutant, Daphne Tan winning the nation's third silver medal in the Masters final of the World Women Championships 2011 on Sunday. Pluhowsky opened with a 300, the tournament's fifth perfect game when she beat Tan, 200-226 on the long oil pattern. But the 20-year-old Tan won the second game, 238-219 on the medium oil pattern to draw level at one-all.
The 29-year-old 2002 and 2004 AMF World Cup champion went on a strikefest reeling in 11 consecutive strikes before leaving a stubborn pin 10 to take the third game 299-234 to go 2-1 up.
Tan simply had no answer to Pluhowsky's sizzling form taking the fourth game, 223-191 to win the tie and earned the gold medal. The champion had advanced to the title match after edging a second German opponent, Nadine Geibler, 3-2 in the semi-final.
Tan beat top seed and All Events gold medalist, Mai Ginge Jensen of Denmark, 3-1 in the other semi to set up the finale with the American left-hander. Tan also eliminated a third American in the final, Kelly Kulick, 3-1 in the quarter-finals.The third American, Liz Johnson crashed out in the first round losing to Tannya Roumimper of Indonesia, 2-3 while Pluhowsky scrapped through with a 3-2 narrow victory over the first Geramn, Patricia Louto in the opening round.
The two other national bowlers in the Masters was Shayna Ng and Jazreel Tan, who faced each other in the first round in which Jazreel won 3-2 to advance. Jazreel was eliminated 1-3 by Kelly Kulick in the quarter-finals.
Pluhowsky also became the first women in the history of the world championships to earn four gold medals in the tournament while Singapore also made history by winning 3 silver and a bronze medal in a single world meet.
Shayna Ng won the nation's first bronze medal in the singles event after a record-breaking qualifying round before losing in the semi-final. New Hui Fen and Jazreel Tan was denied the gold by USA and won the silver instead in the doubles event.
Team Singapore was again denied the gold by Team USA when they lost to the Americans in the 5-Player team event in which the United States finally won the gold after a 25-year break and being runner-up for three consecutive years.
The World Women Championships 2011 featured 171 bowlers from 33 countries and competed in the Singles, Doubles, Trios, Team, All Events and matchplay Masters. The next world championship will return with the men and women competing together and will be held in Las Vegas, USA in 2013 hosted by USBC.
Photos by Terence Yaw in Hong Kong.