Singapore girls in title contention
22nd July, Orlando: Singapore girls are in the title contention for the team gold after finishing fourth behind Canada in the first block at the 10th World Youth Championship on Tuesday at Boardwalk Bowl. The girls team started on the right footing with a 821 opening game to trail Puerto Rico, Netherlands and Malaysia but an average 758 dropped the quartet out of the top 4 after the second game.
Inspired by a strong performance by Singapore Open champion, Cherie Tan, the team rebounded with 856 in their third game to amassed a total of 2435 and taking fourth spot, 49 pins behind leader, Canada, who chalked up 2484.
Cherie shot the highest series with 652 followed by Jazreel Tan on 604, Amanda Ng 590 and Jasmine Yeong-Nathan 589. Malaysia, who led before the final game, settled for second with 2461 while Germany edged Singapore for third with 2455.
Meanwhile, our boys were less impressive when they only managed a 12th place finish with 2377. Doubles bronze medalist, Mark Wong shot the highest series with 656 followed by Benjamin Lim (628), Eugene Low (565) and Gregory (528).
Malaysia finished with 2595 in the four-player event, good enough for a minuscule one-pin lead over the host United States. Finland was third with 2514 and Norway fourth at 2480.
Muhd Nur Aiman led the Malaysian boys with a 666 series followed by Syafiq Ridhwan (664), Aaron Kong (649) and Adrian Ang (616). Kong threw three strikes in the last frame to edge the United States by a pin.
Mark Wong improved his eighth place overnight to fifth in the All Events standings with 3262 after 15 games. England's Dominic Barrett maintained his lead in Boy's All Events by shooting a 642 series in team event. His 15-game total of 3465 has put him on the cusp of securing the gold medal in the event.
Amanda Ng is only nine pins adrift the 16th-placed American Michelle Carcagente with 3038 with Jazreel Tan in 22nd with 3019 a further 28 pins. Rocio Restrepo of Colombia used a 607 series in team event to keep hold of the lead with 3247.
The top 16 players in all-events after the conclusion of singles, doubles and team will advance to the best-of-five, single-elimination Masters competition on Thursday.
The team event will conclude Wednesday with the final three games of the preliminaries before the field is cut to the top four boys teams and four girls teams for the semifinals.
Detailed scores: Boy's Team 1stBlk | Girl's Team 1stBlk | Boy's All Events | Girl's All Events.
Photos courtesy of B.C. Cheah, MTBC.