Singapore duo wins bronze medal
2nd July, Anyang, Korea: Singapore men delivered their first medal at the 4th Asian Indoor & Martial Arts Games bowling competition after Joel Tan and Keith Saw earned the bronze medal in the Men’s Doubles on Tuesday.
Tan and Saw had earlier completed their 6-games preliminaries in fourth position with a total of 2475. Daisuke Yoshida of Japan topped the opening squad with 2651 ahead of Park Jong Woo and Shin Seung Hyeon of Korea in second with 2595.
Hussain Al Suwaidi and Shaker Al Hassan of UAE, who led in the early stages, finished third with 2571, 80 pins adrift the leader.
Hong Kong’s Wu Siu Hong and Singles gold medalist, Michael Mak topped the second squad with 2598 ahead of a second Korean pair of Cho Young Seon and Singles silver medalist, Kim Jun Yung with 2560.
Johnathan Chan and Aris Ardilla of Malaysia finished third in the squad with 2558 while Chinese Taipei’s Zhang Bo Sheng and Chang Chih Ming, edged Singapore’s second pair of Javier Tan and Muhammad Jaris Goh by 27 pins to take up the eighth spot of the quarter-finals shootout.
Japan advanced as top seed in the overall standings with Hong Kong as second-seed and Korean first pair third-seed. UAE, Korean second pair, Malaysia and Singapore’s Tan and Saw were seeded fourth to seventh.
Tan and Saw edged second-seed Hong Kong, 404-381 in the quarter-final match to advance into the semi-final and guaranteed of at least a medal. Japan sailed past Chinese Taipei, 499-394 to advance.
Korea’s first pair of Park and Shin dispatched Malaysia, 381-322 to book their semi-final spot while UAE defeated Korea’s second pair of Cho and Kim, 443-362 in the quarter-finals.
SIngapore’s fine run came to an abrupt end when they lost to top seed and in-form Japan, 397-468 in the first semi-final match while Park and Shin narrowly edged UAE, 441-433 in the second semi.
“I’m very happy with the format of this competition where you can still become a champion even though you made the quarter-finals shootout in eighth,” said the 18-year-old Singapore Sportsboy of the Year recipient, Keith Saw.
“Hong Kong is a good team as shown when they topped the second squad but in a one-match shootout, anything can happen and we managed to beat them. But I guess we lost to a better team when matched against the Japanese.
“I’m happy for myself, Joel and the whole team. Daphne has won the gold medal for the women and we’ve now at least delivered the men’s first medal. This would give us more confidence for our final Team event.”
Japan’s superb run leading to the final ended disappointingly though when they lost to host nation, Korea in the title match 400-442 to settle for the silver medal. Park and Shin won Korea’s first gold after three days of competition.
Competition will resume with the Women’s Doubles tomorrow in one squad and the top 8 pairs will qualify for the quarter-finals shootout.
The Team of 4 for the men and women divisions will be contested over two blocks of 3 games over two days on July 4 and 5. The top 4 men team and top 4 women team will qualify for the semi-finals shootout to be held on July 6.
Detailed scores: Men’s Doubles Final | Men’s Doubles Semi-Finals | Men’s Doubles Quarter-Finals | Men’s Doubles Combined | Photo Album.
Photos by Terence Yaw in Anyang, Korea.