Convincing victory for Singapore

Convincing victory for Singapore

28th January, Kuwait: Singapore delivered its first gold medal of the 15th Asian Youth Tenpin Bowling Chmpionship after Bernice Lim and New Hui Fen broke all three records en-route to winning the Girl’s Doubles event by a convincing margin. Bernice Lim, who missed the podium after finishing fourth in the Singles event two days ago, fired 244 in her opening game adding to New Hui Fen’s 266 for a scintilating 510 to lead Korea’s second pair of Kim Hyun Mi and Kim Yeon Ju by 65 pins.

Lim then set the lanes ablazed with a second game of 289 as her partner down her second consecutive 266 for a sizzling 555 which smashed the record of 485 set by Australia in 2007. The duo continued with their strikefest rolling another superb 527 in the third.

The pair’s first three-game series of 1592 also broke the 1304 recorded by Malaysia in 1999 and giving the Singaporeans a 290 pins margin over Malaysia’s Hurul Ainul and Siti Shazwani, who took over second spot at the halfway point.   Lim and Hui Fen kept a moderate pace in the second half to end the Doubles event with a total of 2889 to win Singapore’s first gold medal. Their total erased the third record of 2515 set by Malaysia in 1999. Lim amassed a scoreline of 1455 while her partner, Hui Fen added 1434 to the team total for a convincing victory. Korea overtook Malaysia in the final game to snatch the silver medal with 2590 as Malaysia settled for the bronze with 2587.

“We were surprised ourselves that both of us could post such high scores at the start of the event and that kept us on our toes,” said the only senior national bowler and 18-year-old Bernice Lim.

“And after two more massive games from both of us, we were jsut enjoying our bowling which took a lot of the pressure off us.”

“We were pacing each other well throughout the event and making sure we kept our focus,” said New Hui Fen, who won two gold an a silver medal in the Asian Youth Games in July 2009 in Singapore.   “The girls are simply awesome in the first three games which goes to show that we can be as good as the strongest team here,” said national head coach, William Woo. “Although the girls slakened a bit in the fourth game, they knew they had a comfortable margin so it didn’t bother them much.

Singapore’s second pair of Gina Lim (1029) and Krishna Darshini (1152) just could not get into their strides and managed only to finish 13th out of 15 teams with 2181.

The boys will take to the lanes tomorrow for their Doubles divided into two squads as the girls take a day’s rest. The team events will be staged on Saturday and Sunday over two blocks of three games each.

Detailed scores: Girl’s Doubles. Photos by Terence Yaw in Kuwait.