National champion makes finals

15th December, Doha: Newly-crowned Singapore National Champion, Lee Yu-Wen secured his spot in the Stage 1 finals of the 9th Qatar International Open on Tuesday with a score of 1298 while Remy Ong remained third overall. The left-handed Lee Yu-Wen knocked down lines of 209, 223, 214, 246, 215 and 198 for a 6-game total of 1298 a day earlier but could not improve his score when he took to the lanes for his second attempt in Squad 8.

The 29-year-old national kegler, who ended a three year title drought with a victory in the Singapore National Championship last month, posted 214, 212, 241, 171, 174 and 243 for a total of 1255 to finish 13th in the squad.

But Lee's earlier effort of 1298 put him in 19th position in the overall standings and crucially securing his spot in the Stage 1 finals.   Remy Ong, who received his high series award of 200 Euro for topping Day 3 qualifying rounds with 1347, notched up an improved 1367 in the same squad and finished behind leader, Hussain Al-Suwaidi of UAE, who shot a sizzling 1421 to become the new overall leader. Ong superb performance allowed him to retain third spot in the overall standings as others made their improvements too in an attempt to make the top 6 standings and earn byes to Stage 3 finals.

Singapore's Jason Yeong-Nathan and Lionel Lim made little headway as the duo shot 1190 and 1159 in Squad 8. Jason occupied 56th position while Lim ended in a lowly 75th position.

Hussain Al-Suwaidi is the new leader to dislodge his fellow compatriot and Asian Indoor Games triple gld medalist, Naif Oqab. Ong is third while Day 1 high series award winner, SHaker Al-Hassan dropped to fourth.   Squad 7 leader, Dominic Barrett and Stuart Williams of England tie in sixth position with 1347 to join the rest to advance into the Stage 3 finals.

Seven more squads are scheduled for the next two remaining days of qualifying - three on Wednesday and four on Thursday. A one-game desperado squad will be held after the last squad to give bowlers a final chance to make the Stage 1 finals.

  Photos by Terence Yaw in Doha.