Second bronze for Singapore
28th June, Bangkok: Bernice Lim and New Hui Fen won a second bronze medal for Singapore after the duo narrowly lost to Japan in the Girl’s Doubles semi-finals of the 12th World Youth Championships on Thursday. Bernice Lim and New Hui Fen, who had yesterday made the top 4 semi-finals elimination round in second overall after the preliminaries, faced Japan’s Misaki Mukotani and Hikaru Takekawa in the second semi match.
Lim rolled a superb 215 but Hui Fen found the lane conditions quite different from her qualifying six games hence struggled to find the right line in the match. Although she made a quick ball change, she was still unable to match up well.
Hui Fen managed only 155 giving the pair a total of 370 against the Japanese’s 400 denying Singapore a crack at the title.
“The game plan was to make sure we put in the usual focus and make good shots,” said Bernice Lim. “It worked well for me but I supposed Hui Fen didn’t quite get into her strides.
“Our team is pretty even and we’re confident we can bounced back and fight for another shot at the gold medal by finishing in the top 4 again in the Team of 4.”
In the first semi, second time top seed Malaysian pair of Dayang Khairuniza and Jacqueline Sijore lost to fourth-seed, Kim Seon-Jeong and Hwang Yeon-Ju, 411-425.
Kim and Hwang went on to post identical game of 253 and registering a convincing victory over Japan, 506-420 for their second gold medal. Japan settled for their second silver while Malaysia and Singapore earn a bronze medal each.
In the boy’s division, Ng Chiew Pang and Keith Saw were third overnight after three squads were completed. The Singaporeans were etremely unlucky to be knocked off from the top 4 by two pairs in the final squad.
Going into the final game, three pairs were in contention. England had taken over the lead in the squad after the fifth game and needed 350, USA needed 367 and the second Sweden pair needed 397 to knock off Singapore.
England came through in style to post 415 and emerged as the overall leader. The Amercians downed 386 to claim third spot but the Swedes managed 391 to finish behind Singapore.
Overnight leader, Sweden slipped down to second while Korea clinched the fourth and final spot pushing down Singapore out into fifth and out of the semi-finals.
Korea defeated top seed England, 421-414 in the first semi-finals and USA ousted Sweden 436-394 to advance to the finals and face the Koreans. The American favourites of Andrew Koff and Marshall Kent were outclassed by Kim Yeon-Sang and Hwang Dong-Jun, 402-480 to settle for the silver.
Korean boys captured their first gold medal making it Korea’s third in the championship. Basil Low remained in the lead in the All Events and the only Singaporean in the top 24. All four girls are in the top 24 with Hui Fen the best girls in fourth.
Competiton will shift to the 4-player Team event starting with a single squad for the girls and two squads for the boys. They will play 3 games on medium oil pattern in the first block on June 29 and long oil pattern in the second block on June 30.
The top 4 girls team and top 4 boys team will advance into the semi-finals elimination rounds on July 1 at 3.00pm local time.
Detailed scores: Girl’s Doubles Semi & Finals | Boy’s Doubles Semi & Finals | Photo Album.
Photos by Terence Yaw in Bangkok.