National champion makes good headway

National champion makes good headway

8th December, Doha: Two-time national champion, Jason Yeong-Nathan made good headway in his first attempt at qualifying of the 8th Qatar International Open on Day 3 on Monday evening. Jason, who regained the Singapore national crown last month following on his sister, Jasmine Yeong-Nathan's historical triumph in the AMF World Cup in Mexico, opened with games of 199, 210 and 191 in the first three.

The 25-year-old member of the Singapore National team was continuing to find his line managing only 207 and 200 in his next two games but everything seemed to come together for Jason as he brought home a final massive game of 275 to give himself a total of 1282.

His first attempt gave him a fourth place finish behind three women, who ruled Squad 6 taking the top three positions. Vanessa Fung and Chan Shuk Han of Hong Kong tied in first place with 1289 with Norway's Heidi Thorstensen third just 1 pin adrift.   Jason's effort put him 11th in the overall standings. Remy Ong struggled to find his line in his first attempt and will make more tries in the next three days. "It's quite challenging when you're required to move four lanes after each game during qualifying," remarked the reigning national champion. "I was just getting the feel of the conditions here and it's very pleasant to be able to score 1282."

The top 6 qualifiers will earn two byes and straight into Stage 3 finals. Positions 7 to 12 qualifiers will get one bye and into Stage 2 finals.

The top 38 qualifiers from positions 13 to 38 plus the top 3 qualifiers from Squads 1 and 2, the top 3 qualifiers from Squads 3 and 4 (those not in the top 38 positions) and the 4 fron the desperado squad will make the cut for the Stage 1 finals.

For the first time, the 8th Qatar International Open is the last and eighteen leg of the immensely popular European Bowling Tour (EBT) where European bowlers will have the chance to earn ranking points to qualify for the Grand Slam.   Detailed scores: Qualfying Squad 6 | Overall Qualfying Standings. Photos by Terence Yaw in Doha.