Asian Youth champion shines

Asian Youth champion shines

1st September, Macau: Asian Youth Games two gold medalist, New Hui Fen of Singapore, shone on her first open championship when she stormed into second spot in the Women's Open Masters qualifying table at the 2009 Macau China International Open. New Hui Fen, who was the darling of Singapore, made her mark by capturing the opening Singles event at the inaugural Asian Youth Games in July. The 17-year-old bettered her third 3-game qualifying round with 669 to add to an earlier 677 series for a 6-game total of 1346.

The Singaporean youngster will surely be one of the hot favourites to feature well in the Masters finals this Friday as she also won the Masters gold medal at the Asian Intercity Championship held at the same centre in December last year.

Her improved third series moved Hui Fen into second spot in the Women's Open Masters qualifying leaderboard 21 pins behind newcomer, Kim Hyun Mi of Korea, who totaled 1367 for the lead.   Malaysian Open runnerup, Geraldine Ng impressed with a total of 1306 which put her sixth in the table behind two more Koreans, Lee Mi Ryung and Park Ju Young third and fourth with 1340 and 1327 and ABF Tour Hong Kong champion, Chen Dong Dong of China fifth with 1317.

Yuen Nga Lai and Julia Lam of Macau are the two seeded qualifiers while Asian Intercity bronze medalist, Chan Weng Sam, Filomena Choi, Hui Tong and Ku Sok Va occupied the remaining four slots in the local pool. Meanwhile, Singapore's Remy Ong managed only a 12th place finish after a poor 682 second attempt. Ong put up an better series of 727 which gave the Singaporean southpaw a total of 1409.

Jason Yeong-Nathan struggled with two attempts of 675 and 650 for a total of 1325 putting him second in the reserves. The other Singaporean, Benjamin Lim has yet to make the table having only made one attempt.

Thailand's Surasak Manuwong, who shot the tournament's first perfect game, claimed pole position with a scintillating 1532 total from 774 and 758 series. Korea's Park Min Su finished second with 1504 followed by Wu Siu Hong of Hong Kong third with 1476.   Choi Io Fai, Jose Machon of Macau, Lok Hei Ieong and Leong Kin Keong are the four seeded qualifiers in the local pool with Lee Tak Man topping the table with 1391. Man Si Kei and Zoe Dias Ma rounded up the top 3 with 1353 and 1285 respectively.

The top 40 men from the local pool, overseas pool and the mixed pool and the top 30 women from the local pool, overseas pool and mixed pool will contest the Masters finals on September 4 and 5 over two blocks of 8 games each.

The top 4 at the end of the two blocks will advance to the stepladder finals to determine the champion of the inaugural Macau China International Open. The top 16 Asian men and top 16 Asian women will also qualify for the fifth leg of the ABF Tour Macau which will be held on September 6.

Detailed scores: Women's Open Qualifying | Men's Open Qualifying. Photos by Terence Yaw in Macau.