Promising start for Singaporean
10th July, Bangkok: Doubles gold medalist, Shaun Lau of Singapore A made a promising start to lead the Boy's first block Masters finals of the 13th Asian Schools Tenpin Bowling Championship ahead Muhammad Aizudeen of Malaysia A second and Adhiguna Widiantoro of Indonesia A third. After a disappointing run in the Team of 4 event yesterday in which Shaun Lau and his team-mates finished eighth position, Shaun Lau started off well to beat team-mate Howard Saw, 253-213 in the matchplay round-robin to earn 10 extra bonus pins.
But the 16-year-old Maris Stella High School student had to settle for second when his doubles partner, Jevarn Li shot an even higher game beating a fourth Singapore finalist, Muhammad Jaris Goh, 257-223 for the lead.
Jevarn led for another game but soon found himself trailing by 31 pins to Atittarat Cheng when the lanky Thai youth shot 268 to take over the running after three matches. Atittarat won his next two matches with 214 and 211 to open up a gap of 99 pins.
Hong Kong's Leo Tse made his bid to move up into second spot 268 in the fifth while Jevarn slipped down to third with a poor 162.
Team gold medalist, Muhammad Aizudeen took a brief lead when he shot 266 in the sixth match while Shaun Lau recovered with 246 to stay cloer to the front runners.Shaun took advantage over his rivals when they all struggled in their last two games as he won his seventh match with 198 to move into the lead. Despite not winning the final match, the Singapore youth hung on to end the block with 1723 winning only three matches.
Muhammad Aizudeen claimed second spot with 1702 on five wins while Adhiguna Widiantoro finished third with 1698 with three wins.
Muhammad Jaris Goh had a roller-coaster ride in his eighth matches and only managed 12th position with 1597 despite winning five matches while Singles gold medalist, Howard Saw also had a similar ride to end in 15th with 1496 with one draw.
Singapore B Team of Gan Ju-Yen, Darren Ong, Javier Tan and Tay Hu Chiang, who led the Team of 4 first block, squandered a chance to snatch the gold medal from earlier squad leader, Philippines and had to settle for the bronze medal.
Malaysia Team A stromed home in the final game to clinch the Team gold medal with Philippines A settling for the silver medal.
None of the team members made the Masters finals with Darren Ong as best finisher in 35th, Gan Ju-Yen 42nd, Javier Tan 46th and Tay Hui Chiang. Howard Saw missed the All Events podium after finishing fourth.
Shaun Lau made the finals in eighth position joined by Jevarn Li in 14th and Muhammad Jaris Goh 15th position.
The boys will resume with their second block tomorrow in the afternoon after the girls end their second block in the morning. The top 3 boys and top 3 girls will advance to the steplader shootout finals.
Detailed scores: Boy's Masters Block 1 | Photo Album.
Photos by Terence Yaw in Bangkok.