Double victory for national youths
3rd June, Singapore: Singapore national development youth squad members, Oriana Tay and Justin Lim Chia Loong celebrated a double victory when they captured the Youth Girls and Boys Masters titles of the 43rd Singapore International Open. Asian Youth Games Team silver medalist, Ilma Nur Jannah started off the 8-game Masters finals with two back-to-back opening games of 203 but could not hold on to the lead as Ong Ying Xin edged her by 2 pins to take over the running.
Newly-crowned Youth Girls Under-18 champion, Oriana Tay posted four consistent games to surge into th lead at the midway point with Ong trailing by 30 pins as Ilma dropped her pace and slipped down the field.
Tay continued her hot pace to end the finals with a strong 237 final game to win her second consecutive title with 1602 and was the only finalist to register a 200 average. 2007 champion and three-times runnerup, Gina Lim stormed home to snatch second spot with 1537.
"I'm so thrilled to win my second title," exclaimed the 17-year-old polytechnic student, Oriana Tay. "I had a poor start but my coach (Francis) told me to try and use another bowling ball and it worked beautifully.
"Of course as the lanes got drier, I shifted a lot and I was able to keep my consistency. Now I will concentrate on trying to qualify for the Open division and hope for the best."
Asian Youth Games Doubles gold medalist, Krishna Darshini also finshed strongly to clinch third spot with 1523 while Ilma Nur Jannah recovered to end the finals in fourth position with 1506.
Meanwhile, Justin Lim Chia Loong claimed his first international title after the 16-year-old totaled 1731 pinfalls to finish atop the Boys division. A keen tussle for the lead had taken place between Anthnoy Low and Malaysia's Chan Wei Siang in the first half.
But it was the consistency of Justin Lim's game that saw the national youth taking the title 17 pns ahead of Anthony in second with 1714. Another national youth, Ng Shew Pang stormed home in the last three games to snatch third spot with 1657.
"This is my first international title and I'm so happy to have won it," said Justin Lim, who was the national youth champion last year. "Now that the finals is over, I will try to make the Open division Masters later today.
Photos by Terence Yaw for SBF.