Down but not out
1st July, Singapore: Asian Intercity two gold medalist, New Hui Fen delivered Singapore's first gold medal of the 1st Asian Youth Games 2009 after claiming a comfortable victory in the Girl's Singles event on Wednesday afternoon. Anthea Soh of Singapore posted a sizzling 246 in the opening game to lead Korea's Oh Nu-Ri by just 2 pins but lost the lead to Japan's Yuka Oshima after the second game despite registering 208.
Asian Intercity Masters and Team gold medalist, New Hui Fen, who was seventh, bowled consistently with 192, 237 and 236 to take over the lead at the halfway mark and opening up a 41 pin lead over Oh Nu-Ri.
The 17-year-old Singaporean continued her relentless pace to keep the lead with a strong 220 in the fourth game and stretched her lead to a further 66 pins after another excellent 267 in the fifth with Japan's Misaki Mukotani trailing in second.
Despite stronger finishings from Misaki and Korean, Oh, New's 204 in her final game was enough to seal the victory and gave Singapore it's first gold medal with a 1359 total. Misaki settled for the silver with 1314 while Oh took the bronze with 1308."For sure there is tremendous pressure on home soil but the fifth game really eased a lot of that pressure," said the Singapore Sports School student, Hui Fen after the medal presentation.
"But the crowd and supporters here are a great help which urged me to this victory which makes me extremely happy and proud. I still have to thank my coaches for guiding me throughout the event."
Hui Fen's team-mate, Krishna Darshini who was second after the fourth game, missed out the podium and pushed down to fifth after another Korean, Sim Ui-Jin posted a high game of 279 in the final game to take fourth spot.
Early pace-setter, Anthea Soh suffered a low game of 128 in the third to drop out of contention while Ilma Nur Jannah came home 18th.
Photos by Terence Yaw for SBF.