First PBA title for Singaporean
19th March, Kuwait: Jazreel Tan won her first PBA Tour title after defeating team-mate, Shayna Ng, 257-206 in the all-Singapore Women’s stepladder final of the 9th Kuwait International Open, the WTBA World Bowling Tour sixth leg. Tan, who did not advanced into Round 5 after she finished outside the top 8 in 11th position, did however earned top seed for the women’s stepladder finals by being the best women player in the tournament.
In the title match against fellow national team-mate, Shayna Ng, both started with a double strike and a spare in the third frame. But Tan stepped into top gear reeling in sixth consecutive strikes while Ng could not string together as many strikes as her Tan.
The champion romped home a confortable 257-206 victory over Ng to win her first PBA Tour title and pocketed US$2,850 (S$3,580) while Ng earned US$1,850 (S$2,320).
In the first stepladder match, Ng defeated No. 2 seed, Putty Armein of Indonesia, 248-209 to meet Tan in the title match. Armein received US$1,400 (S$1,760) and the fourth highest women finisher was Sharon Limansantoso of Indonesia, who received US$1,200 (S$1,510).
Tan also earned World Bowling Tour 50 points to add to her 46 points earned from 2011 for 99 points total which moved her up from 17th to eighth in the standings. Ng earned 40 points to move up from 77th to 13th with 62 points.In the earlier Round 5 finals, Keith Saw finished 15th with 832 over the 4-games finals in which Josh Blanchard of USA topped the field with 1018 followed by Sean Rash of USA and Khaled Al Dubyyan of Kuwait second and third.
All the 15 finalists advanced into the Modified Round-Robin Matchplay finals over 7 games plus a position round in which three players are matched up for a 20 pin bonus for a win, 10 for scoring second highest and zero for a lost.
Keith put in a better performance but was only able to secure one win and scoring second highest thrice for a total of 2680 pinfalls to finish 13th position.
Tom Smallwood advanced into the stepladder finals as top seed with 3105 followed by Hong Kong’s Wu Siu Hong in second with 3033 and Finland’s Osku Palermaa third with 3023.
Martin Larsen of Sweden, who shot the tournament’s eighth perfect game in the position-round match, made the stepladder finals in fourth with 3013 while Ronnie Russell of USA took the final spot in fifth with 3011.
Two-time EBT Player of the Year, Palermaa won his second consecutive title after the two-handed Finn defeated top seed, Smallwood twice to win his first PBA Tour title. Palermaa had massive wins over the American, 267-232 in the first game and 268-226 in the decider.
The champion had earlier sailed past No. 2 seed, Wu Siu Hong, 278-237 in the third match and edged No, 5 seed and winner of the first stepladder match, Ronnie Russell, 234-230 in the second match.
Russell took out No. 4 seed, Martin Larsen, 250-226 before going down to the eventual champion. The Finn, who won the Kingdom of Bahrain Open just two weeks ago in Manama, earned another big pay-check of US$25,000 (S$31,470) for the victory.
Smallwood received US$12,000 (S$15,100) as first runner-up. Wu took home US$8,000 (S$10,000) while Russell and Larsen received US$6,000 (S$7,550) and US$5,000 (S$6,290) respectively.
A total of 110 players from 19 countries took part in the championship, the sixth stop of this year’s WTBA World Bowling Tour. The next stop will be the Brunswick Euro Challenge in Saint Maximin, France starting March 20.
Detailed scores: Women’s Stepladder Finals | Men’s Stepladder FInals | Modified Matchplay Finals | Photo Album.
Photos by Terence Yaw in Kuwait.