Jasmine advances into quarterfinals

Jasmine advances into quarterfinals

13th November, Mexico: Pole-sitter Jasmine Yeong-Nathan of Singapore, brought home another sizzling performance to advance into the round-robin quarterfinals of the 44th QubicaAMF Bowling World Cup in the lead on Thursday. Jasmine Yeong-Nathan, who led the field since shooting the tournament's third perfect game in the second block of the preliminary rounds, continued to display a polished performance and consistency throughout the eight-game Top 24 block.

The 20-year-old 2005 National champion reeled off 256, 206, 247, 204, 208, 217 and 217 to lead the top 8 qualifiers into the quarterfinals. Defending champion, Ann-Maree Putney of Australia narrowed the gap fro 107 pins to 49 pins to finish second with 7210.

Helen Johnsson of Sweden in third with 7171. England's Zara Glover moved up two notches to finish fourth with 7048 by posting the highest 8-game series of 1852.   Finland's Krista Pollanen, Netherlands' Liasanne Breeschoten and two-time champion, Shanon Pluhowsky of USA took fifth to seventh positions while Canada's Jennifer Park edged France's Isabelle Sacco by 8 pins to clinch the final top 8 spot with 6798.

In the men's division, Derek Eoff was again too good for the field of 24 as he shot 1903 in the eight-game round giving himself a 32-game total of 7403 to take pole and comfortably advanced into the round-robin quarterfinals.

Malaysia's Zulmazran Zulkifli continued to trail the American despite shooting the tournament's fifth perfert game in the second game of the eighth-game block. The Malaysian totaled 7230 but has narrowed the gap from 107 pins to 73. Swede, Martin Larsen claimed third spot with 7213 ahead of UAE's Hussain Al-Suwaidi and Canada's Jack Guay in fourth and fifth spots. Luis Rodriguez of Puerto Rico and Leonidas Maragkos made the cut in sixth and seventh positions.

The most unlucky was perhaps Finland's Sami Konsteri, who was edged out by just 1 pin by Ireland's Paul Stott, who took the last spot with a total of 6988. France's Francois Sacco, who was sixth before the last game dropped to ninth.

The top 8 men and women will return to Bol 300 in the afternoon for the eight games round-robin with 30 pins bonus for a win. The finals will be played on Friday and will be live on television.

Detailed scores: Men's Top 24 | Women's Top 24. Photos by Mervyn Foo, SingaporeBowling.