Singapore adds two bronze medals
21st January, Abu Dhabi: After drawing blanks in the trios event for the past two days, Singapore women bounced back on Friday to win the 5-player Team bronze medal of the 21st Asian Tenpin Bowling Championships.
The day started off with the first block of 3 games of 5-player Team event over the short oil pattern and as expected, the Korean women took an early lead with 1074 as Japan and Singapore trailed in second and third.
A sizzling 1122 from Daphne Tan, Tan Yan Ling, Fok Ka Wai, Kristel Oh and Bernice Lim moved the team into the front to lead Japan by 37 pins as Korea slipped down to third.
Despite a respectable 957 in the third game, Japan ended the first block stronger to lead at the halfway mark with 3098 followed by Korea with 3073 and SIngapore 3052.
The Korean women stamped their mark after firing 1140 at the start of the second block over the medium oil pattern to regain the lead and built up a healthy 212 pins over their nearest rival.
Another 1118 from Korea more or less made sure that the gold has been secured by them while a keen tussle had developed amongst Japan, Singapore and Malaysia battling for the silver and bronze medals.
Korea sealed their victory with 6427 to take the gold. Singapore ended with a decent 1029 in the final game but Japan kept their cool to come home with 1040 and snatched the silver medal with 6055.
Singapore won the bronze with 6053, just two pins away from Japan. Malaysia missed the podium by finishing fourth with 6035, a further 14 pins away.
Daphne Tan added the second bronze medal for Singapore after she finished third in the Women's All Events with 5218. Korea's Hwang Sun-Ok and Son Yun-Hee finished one-two with 5287 and 5226 to win their third gold and second silver medal.
Tan Yan Ling and Bernice Lim joined Daphne in Round-robin Masters finals by taking up 13th and 14th positions in the All Events with 4912 and 4906. Fok Ka Wai, Teo Li Ying and Kristel Oh failed to qualify finishing 23rd, 35th and 37th positions.
Meanwhile, Singapore men continued to draw blanks in the championships. The team managed only ninth out of 17 men teams competing. Korean men won their third gold medal after topping the 5-player team event with 6476.
Host nation, UAE took the silver medal with 6449 while Kuwait edged Hong Kong by 27 pins for the bronze medal with 6251. No SIngapore men made the Masters finals. Justin Lim Chun Liang was the best performer finishing 28th in the All Events.
Korea is running away in the overall medal tally after five events with their men and women picking up 3 gold medals each. They have a medal haul of 6 gold and 3 silver medals.
Malaysia is second with 1 gold and 3 silver medals. Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia are the three other countries to win a gold medal each.
The top 16 men and top 16 women in the All Events standings qualified for the Round-robin Masters finals over two blocks on Saturday (2.00pm local time) and Sunday (9.00am). The top 3 men and top 3 women will advance to the stepladder finals.
Detailed scores: Women's Team of 5 | Men's Team of 5 | Women's All Events | Men's All Events
Photos by Terence Yaw in Abu Dhabi.