Singapore misses chance for a medal

24th May, Hong Kong: Singapore missed the chance to win a medal to end the Girl's Team event of the 11th Asian Schools Tenpin Bowling Championship in fifth after leading the first block earlier on Sunday. Despite starting with a lowly 761 in their opening game, the Singaporean quartet erase the 2004 record of 933 with a second game of 939 to move up to third. Another superb 851 gave the team the lead with 2551.

Philippines finished second with 2531 followed by favourite, Japan third with 2522. When the Singapore team took to the lanes in the second block, disaster struck them unkindly when they only managed to knock down 721 which saw them dropping out of contention.

Although they fought on galantly with 842 and 849 to end the 6-game event with 4963, their effort was only good enough for fifth spot. Australia upstaged the favourites, Japan and Korea to win the gold with 5114.   Japan, who led after the fifth game, settled for the silver medal with 5099 while Philippines took the bronze medal with 5048. Korea finished fourth with 5040, 77 pins ahead of the Singaporeans.

All is not lost as three of the four girls made the top 16 Masters finals. Edlyn Kwok finished 10th in the All Events with 3762 followed by Genevieve Gan in 13th on 3654 and Celine Mok squeezed in with 3624 in 15th position.

Singles gold medalist, Misaki Mukotani won the All Events gold with 4263 ahead of Sim Ui Jin of Korea in second with 4098. Sim also shot the tournament's fourth perfect game in the fifth game. Kim Ji Yeon (B) took the bronze medal with 3995. Singapore's first team of Anthony Wee Wei Yang, Ng Chiew Pang, Keith Saw Hui Xun and Jin Lau came home a respectable fifth with 5030. The second tem ended in a dismal 15th with 4510. Singles bronze medalist, Paul Yap missed the finals finishing 17th in the Boy's All Events.

Jin Lau and Ng Chiew Pang took 19th and 20th positions, Keith Saw 24th, Anothny Wee 39th,, Shawn Loh, who shot the tournament's second perfect game finished 43rd, Alexander Tan 47th and Tan Chng Kiat 49th.

Shusaku Asato and Daisuke Yoshida gave Japan the gold and silver medal after finishing first and second with 4173 and 4117 respectively. Malaysia's Muhd Amirrul Afif settled for the bronze medal with 4114.   The top 16 boys and top 16 girls in the All Events standings advance into the Round-Robin Matchplay finals over two blocks of eight games each on Monday and Tuesday. The top 3 at the end of the finals will proceed to the stepladder finals for the Masters title.

Detailed scores: Girl's Team Blk2 | Boy's Team Blk2 | Girl's All Events | Boy's All Events. Photos by Terence Yaw for SBF.