Singapore wins second silver
4th July, Singapore: Another nail-biting end to the second block of the Boy's Team event won Singapore its second silver medal of the 1st Asian Youth Games 2009 as Hong Kong claimed their second gold medal. Singapore's Basil Low, Brandon Lee, Christopher Hwang and Justin Lim, who was third in the first block, started their second block on a right footing with a superb opening game of 782 to move up to second spot.
Overnight leader, Japan suffered a disasterous 680 to place themselves out of contention as Wong Kwan Yin, Tsang Yin Ki, Tse Chung Yin and Singles gold medalist, Michael Mak Cheuk Yin took Hong Kong to the front.
While Hong Kong posted another good score of 833 in the fifth game, Indonesia made their bid with a strong 884 to haul themselves up to fourth as Korea fired two strong games to take over third spot with Singapore dropping to fourth.
With 105 pins margin going into the final game, Hong Kong boys prevailed to end with 774 and a total of 4971. Korea shot 880 with a hope of taking the silver but Singapore fired a sizzling 918 in their final game to snatch the silver with 4952 leaving Korea with the bronze.
Indonesia fumbled with 816 to missed the podium with 4860. Hong Kong hung on to take the gold, just 19 pins ahead of the Singaporeans while Korea ended 27 pins behind in third.
"We knew we were in the hunt for a medal so we gave our best," said 17-year-old Basil Low, who shot 1325 to become the highest scorer in the SIngapore team. "In the team event, everyone does their part."
"We're happy with the results and we were not paying too much attention to the scores," said the Doubles silver medalist, Christopher Hwang. "Hong Kong has made a lot of progress of late, so it was no surprise that they picked up the gold," said the youngest team member and 16-year-old Brandon Lee.
Dennis Ranova posted the highest 6-game series of 1372 followed by Michael Mak who shot 1341. Korea's Hwang Dong-Jun topped the All Events table with 4070 ahead of Michael Mak in second with 3970.
Justin Lim and Basil Low will represent Singapore in the Masters finals after finshing as the two best Singaporean in 9th and 12th positions respectively. Only two from each nation are allowed to qualify for the Masters finals.
Photos by Terence Yaw for SBF.