First medal for Singapore
24th March, Macau: National bowler, Javier Tan picked up Singapore’s first medal at the 18th Asian Youth Tenpin Bowling Championships by winning the Boy’s Singles bronze medal as Muhammad Rafiq Ismail of Malaysia took the gold with a record-breaking performance.
Muhammad Jaris Goh, who was paired with Tan in the second squad, got off to a cracking start rolling a big game of 268 to trail Hong Kong’s debutant, Ivan Tse by 1 pin and ahead of Enrico L. Hernandez of Philippines by another pin.
Tan himself also returned a superb game of 255 but was fifth, 5 pins behind a second Hong Kong youth, Tony Wong. Muhammad Jaris and Tse shared the lead after the second game when both followed their first game with 244 and 243 respectively.
Hernandez shot into the lead after rolling the tournament’s first 300 in the third game with Muhammad Jaris trailing in second while Tan registered 215 and 218 to keep pace with the leaders.
Tan fired 279 in the fourth but continued to trail Hernandez and his team-mate but with a strong 258 in the fifth game, Tan narrowed the gap as the Filipino and Muhammad Jaris stayed ahead.
Hernandez ended strongest amongst the trio to top the squad with 1480 while Tan finished with 208 to snatch second spot with 1433 and Muhammad settled for third with 1410.
But Hernandez’s effort managed to land him the silver medal, 135 pins behind squad A leader, Muhammad Rafiq Ismail, who smashed two records en-route to winning Malaysia’s first gold medal.
The Malaysian broke the 3-games record of 765 with 845 in his first three games and the 6-games record of 1509 with 1615, both set by Jason Belmonte of Australia in 2004 in Bangkok.
Muhammad Jaris missed the podium by 23 pins after finished fourth overall. Seo Hyo Dong of Korea, who trailed Muhammad Rafiq in the earlier squad, rounded out the top 5 with 1397.
Joel Tan and Brandan Tan, who were in the first squad, posted 1309 and 1226 to finish 17th and 31st position respectively. Kristin Quah, Charlene Lim, Ilya Syamin and Joy Yap are Singapore’s representatives at the championships.
The 40 girls will take to the lanes tomorrow for their Singles. Competition will resume with the Boy’s Doubles on March 26 and the Girl’s Doubles on March 27.
Detailed scores: Boy’s Singles Combined | Boy’s Singles Squad B | Boy’s Singles Squad A | Photo Album.