Defending champion moves into top 4
25th March, Riyadh: Defending champion, Remy Ong of Singapore moved into the top 5 of the overall standings after the second day of qualifying at the 5th Kingdom International Open on Friday. Remy Ong, who qualified for last week's Kuwait Open Round 2 finals and made an early exit, continued his Middle East campaign by arriving Riyadh in Saudi Arabia on Thursday.
With a day's rest, the 32-year-old national bowler took to the lanes at Universal Bowling Centre for his first attempt. Ong had lines of 191, 233 and 178 for a 602 series.
In his second attempt, the Singaporean started off superbly with 224 but hit a low game of 170 before ending with a higher 218 for a 612 series.
Taking a break before his third squad, Ong had an average start with 190 but then found a good line to bowl to fire home 246 and 244 for a splendid 680 series.
His three attempts gave him a 9-game tally of 1894 putting the Singaporean fourth in the qualifying standings behind Saudi Arabia's Ahmed Al-Hadyan, who topped the table with 1987.American PBA pro and PBA Player of the Year, Parker Bohn III moved into second spot with 1945 followed by four-time World Cup champion and Hall of Famer, Paeng Nepomuceno of the Philippines third with 1896.
Another PBA pro, Ronnie Russell of USA clinched the fifth and final spot of the Top 5 with 1885 while Day 2 high series winner, Ryan Lalisang of Indonesia headed the rest of the qualifiers in seventh with 1858.
The 5th Kingdom International Bowling Tournament commenced on Thursday and players will need three of his best 3-games qualifying series to make the finals. Qualifiers positioned 1 to 5 plus the best Saudi will earn automatic entry into Round Stage 1 knockout finals.
Qualifiers positioned 7 to 27 plus two fom the desperado squad (positions 28 and 29), three best Saudi qualifiers (positions 30 to 32) and two qualifiers from the earlier local tournament will make the Top 28 Finals over 8 games on March 30.
The top 10 will join the 6 seeded qualifiers into the Stage 1 double elimination knockout finals over a two-game total pinfalls. Thereafter, winners and losers will go through Stage 2 to 8 Finals to finally determine the champion.
Detailed scores: Qualifying Standings | Photo Album.
Photos by Terence Yaw in Riyadh.