Singapore Sports School youth bags second title

27th September, Singapore: Anthea Soh Wei-Xuen bagged her second international title when the Singapore Sports School youth triumphed in the Youth Girl's Under 16 Masters crown of the 40th Singapore International Open at Superbowl SAFRA Mount Faber Thursday morning.  Anthea, 15 who has been bowling for the past 5 years, gradually moved up from fifth after a slow start to second at the halway mark and went on to cap off her second crown. She won the Indonesia Open Youth Under 18 title in August.

Anthea amassed a total of 1485 and an impressive 185.6 average to snatch the victory from pace-setter, Kwa Ai Teng of Singapore, who settled for second with 1459, 26 pins adrift. Tay Hui Erh took third spot with a score of 1431.

"I didn't know I had won until Mr Mike Lam came and told me about it," said the beaming Anthea. "I'm going home to take a good rest and will prepare for the Women's Graded B finals. I'll be happy to if I can finish in the top 3.

Meanwhile, 13-year-old Chong Jun Foo from Sarawak, Malaysia, finally captured his first international title after he finished top of the Boy's Under 16 Masters finals with a total of 1618. Muhammad Fazrin B Khairul Faizi gave Malaysia a 1-2 finish when he took second spot with 1586.

Except for a low game of 139 in the third and a moderate 190 in the fourth, the SMK St. Thomas pupil from Kuching knocked down the other 6 games above the 200-mark for the victory. Chong's best outing was finishing second in the Thailand Open Youth Graded division in May.

Singapore's Colin Wee settled for third postion with a total of 1573 ahead of Hong Kong's Michael Mak Cheuk Yin and Tan Cheng Kiat of Singapore rounding up the top 5 with 1555 and 1550 respectively.

Qualifying for the other divisions will end today at 12.30am. The Men's Open Masters first block finals will be staged at 1.30pm on Friday, September 28 while the Women's Open Masters will take place at 5.00pm.Photos by Terence Yaw.