Brilliant start for Malaysian
10th July, Hong Kong: Malaysia had a brilliant start in the 10th Asian Schools Tenpin Bowling Championship underway at Mei Foo Super Fun Bowl as Zaid Izlan B Ibrahim Hakimi set a cracking pace to lead the Boy's Singles Squad A on Tuesday morning. Zaid Izlan, who won the Doubles Gold medal at the same bowling centre in the 2004 Asian Schools, trailed early pace-setter, Shin Seung-Hyeon of Korea by 33 pins after posting 225. The 17-year-old Bukit Jalil Sports School pupil took over the lead after another fine game of 234.
A 268 from Filipino, Jomar Roland Jumapao rocketted him into top spot and taking over from the Malaysian with a 22 pins margin as Zaid suffered a 180 in his third game. Jumapao kept his lead after a 212 game in the fourth but found his lead narrowed down to just 11 pins after Zaid recovered with a 266.
A scintillating 242 in the fifth game by Zaid saw the Malaysian youngster regain his lead while it was Jumapao, who suffered a low game of 178 to trail by 53 pins. A 190 by both the bowlers did not change their positions with Zaid ending the 6-game singles with 1337.
Jumapao settled for second with 1284 with Apiwich Watanaphongsakorn of Thailand storming home to take up third spot with 1244. Pace-setter, Shin Seung-Hyeon of Korea dropped to fourth to tie with Jose Cillins of Philippines on 1241 to round up the top 5.
Meanwhile, Filipina Anne Marjorie Reyes led the Girl's SIngles Squad A with a total of 1291. The 16-year-old High School student, who has been bowling for 4 years, trailed leader Shin Bo-Hyun of Korea by 12 pins at the start despite posting 246.
Reyes set the lanes on fire as she posted 258 to take over the lead from Shin by 52 pins after the second game. Another superb 234 in her third game gave the leader a comfortable 52 pins margin at the halfway mark while Shin could only kncok down 203.
Although Shin fought back galantly to narrow down the gap to 9 pins after the fifth game, a 200 from Reyes was enough to claim the lead with 1291. Shin settled for second with 1265 while last year's Asian Schools Masters gold medalist, Wang Ting-Wen finished a distant third with 1190.
Squad B will take to the lanes after the lane maintenance at 2.00pm followed by the final Squad C. The combined scores of the three squads will determine the champion.
Detailed scores: Boy's Singles Squad A | Girl's Singles Squad A | Photo Album.
Photos by Terence Yaw for HKTBC.