Malaysian men dominate Round 1

31st May, Singapore: Malaysians dominated the Men’s Open Round 1 Masters finals of the 46th Singapore International Open with Kang Bo Long leading fellow compatriots, Rafiq Ismail and Timmy Tan in second and third.

Malaysian southpaw and 2010 Asian Games two gold medalist, Alex Liew got off the mark with a scintillating 268 in his opening game to share the lead with Chinese Taipei’s Teng Jui-Pu, 21 pins ahead of another Malaysian, Timmy Tan in second.

Liew kept the lead with another respectable game of 212 as Tan closed the gap by reducing the margin to 17 pins while Malaysian ex-international, Kang Bo Long stayed close to the leading duo a further 4 pins adrift.

But American and former two-time winner of the Singapore Open, Tim Mack surged into the lead after rolling a big game of 258 in the third forcing Tan and Kang to share second spot.

The two Malaysians then got through games 4 to 6 battling fiercely for the lead with a fourth Malaysian, Adrian Ang and fifth Malaysian, Rafiq Ismail trading second spot.

By the seventh game, it was clear that Kang was the more consistent of them all as he reeled in 222, 270 and 239 to open up a gap of 74 pins from the recovering American taking over second spot.

The leader eased off with 181 in the drying lane condition to end the block with 2266, 51 pins ahead of the fast finishing Rafiq in second with 2215. Tan clinched third spot with 2209 while Mack slipped to fourth with a poor 172 in the last game.

“I’m glad to be able to maintain my consistency throughout this block except for the fifth game and the last game,” said the 28-year-old pro shop supervisor, Kang Bo Long.

“The lane condition today is very tricky and I could see that a lot of good bowlers were struggling. It’s important to do well when the pins are carried forward to tomorrow’s 6 games second block.

“I’ll continue to do what I did today and hopefully I can maintain my score which will allow me to make the top 4 stepladder finals.”

Adrian Ang rounded out the top 5 with 2137 while Singapore’s best performer was Joel Tan in sixth position with 2110 ahead of his team-mate and top local qualifier, Keith Saw seventh with 2109.

Early leader, Liew, Thailand’s Dechochai Tinjiratip and desperado top qualifier, Syimir Abdul Razak completed the top 10 with 2104, 2100 and 2067 respectively. Defending champion, Hong Hae-Sol had a torrid time managing a lowly 39th position out of 42 finalists.

The men will resume with their second block of 6 games tomorrow and the top 4 finishers will advance to the stepladder shootout finals which will be video streamed Live.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Singapore.