Singapore emerges as girls overall champion
2nd February, Kuwait: Despite not winning any medals in the Masters finals, Singapore emerged as the girls overall champion with three gold medals at the 15th Asian Youth Tenpin Bowling Championship which concluded on Tuesday. Two gold medalist, New Hui Fen was still in contention for the Masters title when she finished fifth in the first block Masters finals on Monday with 1857, just 42 pins off third-placed Misaki Mukotani of Japan.
Hui Fen won four matches in the first block but was unable to break into the top 3 of the stepladder finals winning only two of the eight matches played in the Round-robin format second block.
Krishna Darshini, who was eighth in the first block, won four matches to add to her five a day earlier and chalked up a total of 3596. Krishna was at one stage in with a shot to advance to the stepladder finals but just missed it by 33 pins.
Krishna was Singapore’s best performer finishing sixth as Hui Fen took ninth spot with 3533. The third Singaporean finalist and triple gold medalist, Bernice Lim finished 11th despite winning five matches today for a total of 3518.
Korea dominated the finals after they took the top 3 stepladder finals spots. No. 1 seed, Kim Hyun Mi gave Korea their second gold medal after beating challenger, Baek Seung Ja, 494-428 over the two game title matchplay.
Baek, who was seeded No. 3, ousted No. 2 seed, Lee Yeon Ji, 236-216 to set up another all-Korean finals. Korea ended the championship with a medal haul of two gold, two silver and 3 bronze medals.
In the boy’s division, Benjamin Lim missed the stepladder finals after he finished 41 pins off third-placed Eric Tseng of Hong Kong. Benjamin was seventh overnight but made up good grounds with four wins for a total of 3668.
Justin Lim Chun Liang improved from 11th to ninth after the second block winning five matches, two more than his first block effort for a total of 3571.
First block leader, Michael Mak captured his third gold medal after he edged challenger, Eric Tseng, 434-429 over two matches in the all-Hong Kong finals. Mak had regained the No. 1 seed from Korea’s Shin Seung Hyeon in the 16th and position round match to advance into the stepladder finals.
Shin, who shot the championship’s sixth perfect game in match 14, led Mak by 39 pins but lost the final match to the Hong Kong wonder kid to settle for second. In the first stepladder match, Shin also lost the match to No. 3 seed, Tseng 189-268 to take home the bronze medal.
Hong Kong emerged as the boys overall champion with a medal haul of 3-3-1 with Korea managing to win one gold in the Boy’s Singles. Malaysia was the other only country to win a gold from the Team event.
Korea emerged as the overall champion with a medal haul of 3-3-4 with Hong Kong second and Singapore third. This championship is by far Singapore’s best performance. At the last outing in Beijing, Singapore came home with 1 silver.
In Perth, Australia in 2006, Singapore won 2 silver and 4 bronze medals. Singapore’s best performance prior to Kuwait was winning 2 gold and 2 silver medals in Hong Kong in 2004.
Detailed scores: Girl’s Masters Block 2 | Girl’s Masters Block 2.
Photos by Terence Yaw in Kuwait.