Singapore youth girls dominate finals
5th June, Singapore: Singapore girls dominated the Youth Masters finals of the 42nd Singapore International Open with Kristel Oh, Gina Lim and Teo Li Ying taking the top 3 spots in the Girl's division on Friday morning. Malaysia's Aris Ardilla and Asian Youth Games bound, Syimir Abd Razak set a cracking pace with 258 and 255 in the opening game to lead the field of 24 finalists. The duo continued to lead the pack with each trading the lead up the fifth game.
A superb 258 from Singapore's Ng Chiew Pang in the sixth game took the youngster to the front, 44 pins ahead of Hong Kong's Rickle Kam in second as the two Malaysians fizzled out of contention.
A weak 149 saw the lead being handed to Rickle, who shot a modest 212 as early leader, Aris bounched back to trail Ng in third. The lanky Hong Kong youth ended the 8-game finals with 235 and a total of 1789 to claim the title.
Ng recovered with 224 in his final game to settle for second with 1759 while Aris Ardilla was contented to finish third with 1734. Syimir Abd Razak of Malaysia and Singapore's Eugene Low rounded up the top 5.Meanwhile, Singapore girls dominated the Youth Girl's Masters finals by sweeping the top 3 positions. Singapore Sports School's Kristel Oh snatched the title from pace-setter and national youth, Gina Lim in the final game.
Teo Li Ying set the early pace with 224 but her lead quickly switched to Gina Lim after the second game. Gina kept a consistent pace throughout and looked set to win the title for the second time.
Gina's lead was reduced from 24 pins to just 4 after she shot 187 in the seventh game and then handed the title to Kristel with another poor 160 in her last game. Kristel, who won two gold medals at last year's Asean University Games, fired 244 and 173 to snatch victory with 1596.
Teo Li Ying settle for third with 1587 behind Gina, who amassed 1587 for second position. Nazrinnah Mohd Kamil was Malaysia's best finisher in fourth with 1563 followed by Clara Lau in fifth position with 1538.
The Men's Senior title went to Men's Graded B first runner-up, Md Salleh Abu Basar. The 51-year-old totaled 1643 to win his first-ever bowling title after bowling for more than 15 years and seriously in the last 5 years.
Steven Tan Teck Lee and Jimmy Lim tied second spot with 1604 while pace-setter, Adam Chew missed out on the podium to take fourth position. Jenny Oon led from start to finish to claim the Women's Senior crown.
The 52-year-old Jenny, who also won the Women's Senior title at the 2008 National Championship, totaled 1533 for a convincing victory. Tan Ai Ber and Lucy Ong-Law finished second and third with 1429 and 1398 respectively.
The Men's Open Masters first block finals will be staged at 1.30pm while the Women's Open Masters will take place at 5.00pm later today.
Photos by Terence Yaw for SBF.