Singapore defies odds to win gold

31st January, Kuwait: With 313 pins adrift overnight leader Japan, Singapore defied all odds by smashing three records en-route to winning the Girl’s Team gold medal of the 15th Asian Youth Tenpin Bowling Championship on Sunday. After a disappointing first block of 3 games bowled on Saturday in which Bernice Lim, Gina Lim, Krishna Darshini and New Hui Fen only managed 2373 total to finish fifth and trailed the leader Japan by 313 pins, the girls turned in a scintilating performance in today’s second block.

The quartet blitzed the lanes to fire 960 breaking the one-game record pf 918 set by the Koreans in the first block to reduce the gap to 177 pins from pace-setter, Japan and 142 pins from second-placed Korea.

Bernice was on a roll firing 287 following her 269 fourth game while Gina shot 225, Krishna 215 and anchorwomen, Hui Fen 258 to give the team another record breaking 985 fifth game. Their spirited team effort placed them in contention for the gold by reducing the gap to 53 pins from Japan and 46 pins from second-placed Korea.   It was apparent that pressure was mounting on the Japanese and Korean team as they had numerous open frames each while Singapore was on another fine run in the final game.

The Singapore quartet ended the event with a moderate 832 game while both Japan and Korea suffered major setbacks to finish with 778 and 746, handing the title and the gold medal to the Singaporeans.

Singapore won their second gold medal with 5150 team total, erasing the 1999 record of 5136 set by Malaysia. The champion also set a new 3-game series of 2777 in the second block to smash the old record of 2574 set in 1999.

Bernice Lim, who trailed overnight leader, Misaki Mukotani of Japan in the All Events standings, shot 782 in today’s team second block to win Singapore’s third gold medal with 4242, which also broke the record of 3766 set by Maxim Nable of Australia in 1999. “It’s simply fantastic the way the team bowled today and I’m glad my effort helped the team to win the gold,” said Bernice Lim, who won her third gold medal of the championship. “And to add another gold with the All Events is even more rewarding.”

“It’s not easy to be the anchorwomen in the team event, but I’m glad Bernice bowled well to help us all,” said New Hui Fen, who won her second gold after partnering Bernice to win the Doubles gold medal two days ago.

“It’s truly a team effort today and it goes to demonstrate our spirit of “Singapore Can Do”, said national head coach, William Woo. “I could sense that after the two amazing games in the fourth and fifth, the team were completely at ease in the third and final game.   First block leader, Rina Asada, Yuri Sato, Mika Yamada and Misaki Mukotani missed the golden opportunity to take thier first gold and had to settle for the silver medal with 5142, just 8 pins from Singapore.

Korea took the bronze medal with 5117 while Malaysia finished fourth with 5085 despite shooting the highest sixth game of 906. Australia, who was third overnight, slipped down to fifth with 4997.

But Australia took back a consolation when Rebecca Whitting shot the championship’s fifth perfect 300 in the final game. Misaki also settled for the silver medal in the All-Events with Baek Seung Ja clinch the bronze medal.

Krishna Darshini, who tied in 16th position with Malaysia’s Siti Shazwani on 3717 in the All Events, had a one-game roll-off in which she won to make the final slot of the Masters finals. New Hui Fen was ninth while Gina missed the cut in 24th position.

Detailed scores: Girl’s Team Block 2 | Girl’s All-Events. Photos by Terence Yaw in Kuwait.