Singapore girls wins first medal

20th August, Beijing: Singapore finally won their first medal when debutants, Daphne Tan and Sabrina Lim partnering Amanda Ng and Cherie Tan to finish second in the Girl's Team event of the 14th Asian Youth Tenpin Bowling Championship.  The Singapore quartet, who was second in the first block bowled this morning, hung on to fend off the late challenge from host nation China and Malaysia to finish just 53 pins behind gold medalist, Korea.

Daphne Tan, Sabrina Lim, Amanda Ng and Cherie Tan set a cracking pace in the opening game of the first block with 852 to grab the lead. The girls followed it up with another superb game of 848 with Korea closing in with 879.

With just 10 pins seperating the two teams, Korea's Yun Hee Yeo, Kim Yang Hee, Hwang Sun Ok and Yoo Sung Hee ended the block in the lead with 2525, just 9 pins ahead of Singapore. Sabrina 's 736 broke an 8-year 3-game record of 719 set by SHalin Zulkifli in 1999.

The Koreans continued their fine run reeling off 844, 719 and 752 to end the second block with 4840 and took their first gold medal. Singapore's quartet gave a good account of themselves with 779, 732 and 760 to win the silver medal with 4787.

Host nation, China did well to finish third and win the bronze medal with 4646 while Malaysia, who was sixth, crawled themselves up to take fourth spot with 4565. Sabrina's 1311 just missed a medal finishing fourth, 7 pins from bronze medalist, Chen Dongdong of China.

Malaysia struck their first gold medal when Siti Safiyah amassed 3683 to top the All Events table. China took the silver and bronze medal when Wu Suqin and Chen Dongdong finished second and third with 3658 and 3653 respectively.

Sabrina is the only player in the Masters finals while her teammates, Cherie Tan, Amanda Ng and Daphne Tan ended up in 18th, 20th and 21st. Benjamin Lim was Singapore's best male performer in 34th with Derek Chan 41st, Mark Wong 50th and Eugene Low 51st.

Detailed scores: Girl's Team 2nd Blk | Girl's All Events

Photos courtesy of Chinese Bowling Association.