Promising display by Singaporeans

30th July, Lincoln, Nebraska: Singapore put in some promising display in the Team of Four event at the 14th World Youth Championships with the boys finishing seventh overall and the girls eighth after the first block.

Alex Chong, Timothy Tham, Cheah Ray Han and Muhd Jaris Goh started well with 807 and added 843 in the second game to take up second position behind pace-setter, Japan. Although Team Singapore completed the first block with 838, they ended up fourth in the first squad.

Chong posted the highest three-game series in the team with 652, Cheah 642, Muhd Jaris 612 and Tham 582 for a teak total of 2488. Japan led the squad with 2686 followed by Norway in second with 2584 and Finland third with 2525.

Team USA took a commanding lead in the second squad to finish first overall with 2784. They also set two new records, breaking the one-game 992 set by Sweden in 2012 with 1012 in their opening game and the three-game 2758 set also by Sweden in 2012 with their 2784 in the first block.

 

Singapore boys team showing promise in Team event

Japan took second position while Sweden, who trailed USA in the second squad, settled for third overall with 2614 and Norway finished fourth. Singapore is only 96 pins off Norway and has a good chance of making the top four semi-finals from their second block.

After 15 games contested in the Singles, Doubles and the first block of the Team event, Cheah has secured his place in the Masters finals in ninth in the All Events standing with 3262. Muhd Jaris is 20th in the All Events standings with 3153. If he can maintain his fine run, he could qualify for the Masters finals.

Alex Chong is in 30th position with 3106 and only 30 pins off the cut in 24th position but Tham is well off the pace in 69th position with 2934.

In the girl’s division, Singapore’s Amabel Chua, Joy Yap, Charlene Lim and Tracy See showed early promise with a superb opening game of 875 to take up third as Canada set the pace ahead of Sweden in second.

A poor 715 in the second game saw them slipped down the field as USA took over the lead with Malaysia moving up the field to trail the leader. The American quartet ended the first block with 2600, 107 pins of Malaysia in second with 2493.

Korea stormed home to clinch third position with 2468 with Canada and Sweden rounding up the top five. Singapore only managed 813 in their third game to end up eighth with 2403 behind Mexico and Japan but only 41 pins off fourth-placed team.

If the girls can turn in a stronger performance in the second block, they have a good chance of making the top four semi-final spots. An encouraing note is three Singapore girls are in the top 24 in the All Events standings.

 

Singapore girls need to step up in the second block

Chua and See are well-placed tieing in 16th position with 3002. Lim is occupying the cut at 24th position with 2921 and will need to prevail in the second block of the Team event in order to secure her Masters final spot. Joy Yap is in a lowly 52nd position with 2782.

The top four boys team and top four girls team at the end of the second block will advance to the single-game knockout semi-finals. The winners will contest the gold medal in the final.

Qualifiers positioned 1 to 8 in the All Events standings will earn a bye and into Step 2 Masters Finals. Qualifiers positioned 9 to 24 will contest the best-of-3 games knockout Step 1 Masters finals on July 31.

The winners will join the seeded qualifiers in another best-of-3 games knockout Step 2 Masters finals. The eight winners of the Step 2 round will meet in the Step 3 quater-finals round in which the winners will advance to the semi-finals and finals.

129 boys and 79 girls from 37 countries are taking part in the 14th edition of the World Youth Championships at Sun Valley Lanes in Lincoln, Nebraska, USA.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Lincoln, Nebraska.