End of fine run for Singaporeans

End of fine run for Singaporeans

24th July, Orlando: Singapore's bid to win a medal in the Masters finals of the 10th World Youth Championships ended abruptly as Mark Wong, Jasmine Yeong-Nathan and Jazreel Tan were knocked out in the first round. Mark made the Top 16 Masters after finishing fifth in the 18-games All Events standings to advance to the knockout stage. He started off well with 212 but lost to Aaron Kong of Malaysia, who shot 228.

The debutant rebounded with 230 in the second game to draw level at one-all to Aaron's 215. The sole male Singaporean finalist then lost two subsequent games, 170-184 and 182-199 ending his chance of advancing further.

Aaron went on to win the gold medal after he defeated American, Dean Richards, 3-0 in the title match. The Malaysian ousted seventh-seed, Fredrik Tjernes of Norway, 3-1 to advance to the finals. Singles gold medalist, Dominic Barrett narrowly lost to Richards, 2-3 in the other semi to settle for the bronze.   Perhaps the most unlucky Singaporean was Jasmine Yeong-Nathan when she was narrowly eliminated by eventual champion, Jun Gwi Ae of Korea in the first round. Jasmine started off with an impressive win over the sixth-seed, Jun 243-204 in the first game. But the Korean drew level with a 216-205 victory over Jasmine in the second game then went one-up over Jasmine, 220-215 in the third game. In probably one of the most closely fought encounter of the finals, Jasmine drew level again in the fourth game with a 205-202 win over her opponent.

The match went down to the wire after both were locked at 216 and needing to bowl the 9th and 10th frame tie breaker. Both had two strikes but unfortunately, Jasmine bowled 6 pins while Jun downed 7 pins.

It was a heartbreaking end to Jasmine's superb run and going down to Jun, 2-3. Jazreel Tan also did not go down to Germany's Tina Hulsch without a fight. Hulsch edged Jazreel, 257-227 and 245-205 in the first two games but shot a high game of 279 to Jazreel's 219 to win, 3-0.   Jun claimed Korea's third gold medal after she defeated Daniela Alvarado of Mexico, 3-2 in the championship match. Alvarado, who became the first-ever girl to shoot a perfect game in the semi-finals where she defeated Hulsch, 3-1, settled for the silver medal.

The champion made the finals when she was stretched to a five-game thriller by Mexican, Sandra Gongora but edged her opponent, 3-2 in the other semi-finals to advance to the finals.

The Masters closed out the 10th World Youth Championships, which saw a diverse number of countries take home medals. Fifteen of the 55 countries that competed earned at least one medal.   Korea's girls team dominated the medal tally, earning three gold medals (team, singles and Masters) and one bronze (doubles). On the boys side, England also came away with four medals, earning two golds (singles and all events), one silver (doubles) and bronze (Masters).

Singapore took home three bronze medals from Jasmine winning in the girl's singles, Mark and Gregory winning the boy's doubles and the girls in the team event.

Detailed scores: Boy's Masters Semi & Finals | Boy's Masters Quarterfinals | Girl's Masters Semi & Finals | Girl's Masters Quarterfinals. Photos courtesy of B.C. Cheah, MTBC and Bowl.com.