Singapore denied a golden opportunity

Singapore denied a golden opportunity

23rd July, Orlando: Singapore was again denied a golden opportunity when our girls lost to Japan in the semi-final match of the Team event at the 10th World Youth Championship to settle for the bronze medal.  Singles bronze medalist, Jasmine Yeong-Nathan led her team-mates, Cherie Tan, Amanda Ng and Jazreel Tan to register lines of 844, 898 and 826 to clinch second in the second block over short oil conditions to advance to the knockout semi-finals.

In the match against third-seed, Japan, Jasmine shot the highest score with 193 as Cherie struggled with 153, Amanda 176 and Jazreel 170 to give the team a total of 692. Maki Nakano shot 215, Rie Totsuka 164, Suzuna Miyagi 173 and covered well by Maya Takemata's 269 to knockout the Singaporeans.

In the girls gold medal match, Korea had just four open frames in their victory over Japan. Jun Gwi Ae led the Koreans with a 216 game while Lee Yeon Ji added 213, Park Mi Ran a 203 and Lee Hye Mi a 173. Each Korean bowler struck on their first ball in the tenth frame to lock up the victory.

For Japan, Totsuka led with a 217 game and Nakano shot 188. The other two players struggled down the stretch as Miyagi had 167 and Takemata shot 169 to hand the team title to the Koreans.Meanwhile, Singapore's Eugene Low, Benjamin Lim, Gregory Gan and Mark Wong were never in the hunt to end the second block in 11th. Eugene downed 1185, Benjamin 1285, Gregory 1096 and Mark 1275 to give the team a total of 4841.

Needing a double in the tenth frame to secure its first team gold medal in tournament history, Malaysia's anchor bowler Aaron Kong delivered and locked up an 837-819 victory over Finland.

Malaysia, which finished as the runner-up in the boys team event in 2004 and 2006, was led in the championship match by Kong's 253 game. Syafiq Ridhwan shot 232, Nur Aiman had 190 and Adrian Ang fired 162.

The Malaysians made the final frame a lot closer than it needed to be as Nur Aiman left a 4-6-7 split to start off the tenth frame and it was immediately followed by a pocket 4-9 split from Ridhwan. Ang then left a 2-8 and converted the spare to keep Malaysia in the match.

Finland was led by Juhani Tonteri's 226 game and he was followed by Magnus Lonnroth (222), Joonas Jehkinen (213) and Joonas Jahi (158). Finland advanced to the finals by defeating the United States by just five pins in the semifinals, 819-814. Needing a mark to advance, American Matt O'Grady left the 3-4-6-7 split and failed to convert it sending the United States to a disappointing loss.

In the other boys semifinal, Malaysia defeated Norway, 876-845 to advance. With the losses, Norway and the United States shared the bronze medal.

All is not lost as Singapore has three players in the Masters finals. Mark Wong finished fifth in the All Events, 45 pins off a bronze medal on an 18-game total of 3881 but crucially making the finals.

England's Dominic Barrett easily claimed the gold with 4153 followed by Norwegian, Mads Sandbaekken and Finn, Joonas Jehkinen in second and third to win the silver and bronze medals.

Jasmine Yeong-Nathan and Jazreel Tan finished 11th and 12th to also advance to the finals. Japan's Maki Nakano totaled 3921 to win the gold while Tannya Roumimper of Indonesia and Rocio Restrepo of Colombia took the silver and bronze. The top 16 players in all-events advanced to the best-of-five, single-elimination Masters competition on Thursday.

Detailed scores: Boy's Team Semi & Finals | Girl's Team Semi & Finals | Boy's Team 2ndBlk | Girl's Team 2ndBlk.

Photos courtesy of B.C. Cheah, MTBC.