Singapore men clinches bronze medal
8th July, Hong Kong: Singapore's trio of Jason Yeong-Nathan, Eugene Low and Shaun Ng put in a spirited display in the second block to clinch the bronze medal in the Men's Trios event of the 20th Asian Tenpin Bowling Championship. Debutant, Eugene Low with no signs of nervousness at all, bowled like a veteran to down an opening game of 235 at the start of the second block. It gave his team-mate, Jason Yeong-Nathan inspiration to fire 236 as anchorman, Shaun Ng kept his cool to chalk up 218.
The game total of 689 from the Singaporeans allowed them to stay in fourth but have reduced the gap from the leading pack while Philippines shot 711 to draw away from overnight leader, Malaysia.
A record-breaking performance of 780 from the Filipino trio in the fifth game allowed then to draw clear of the Malaysia as the latter posted 696. But Singapore dropped off to sixth after a poor 638 allowing Hong Kong and Japan to move ahead of the team.
With a strong fighting spirit and the support from their team-mates, Eugene shot 223, Jason 245 and Shaun 235 in their final crucial game for a total of 703 to haul themselves up to edge Hong Kong and Japan to clinch the bronze medal with 3898.
The Filipinos eased off with 706 to bag the gold medal with 4193, smashing the 6-game record of 3932 set by Japan at the 2002 championship. The champion also broke the 3-game record of 2009 set by Korea with 2197 in the second block.
First block leader of Aaron Kong, Muhd Nur Aiman and Adrian Ang hung on to second spot despite a woeful last game of 591 to settle for the silver medal with 3917, just 19 pins ahead of the Singapore trio.
Singapore's second team of Lionel Lim, Basil Low and Mark Wong only managed 3697 to end up in 18th position while Malaysia's first team stormed home strongly but fell short of 18 pins to take fourth spot.
After 21 games played and three left fro the team second block, the only Singaporean who have secured a place in the Masters finals is Shaun Ng, who is seventh in the All Events standings. Mark Wong is 28th and 91 pins adrift the 16th-placed bowler. Jason is two spots below Mark in 30th while Eugene, Lionel and Basil are 36th, 49th and 59th respectively.
Detailed scores: Men's Trios Blk 2 | Men's All Events.
Photos by Terence Yaw.