Singapore youth takes rare lead
30th May, Singapore: National youth, Joey Yeo RuoQi took a rare lead in the local pool of the Women’s Open Masters qualifying table in the on-going 45th Singapore International Open while Indonesian, Yeri Ramadona grabbed the lead in the Men’s Open division. The 15-year-old secondary 3 student from Raffles Girls School rolled a scintilating 740 to leapfrog overnight leader, New Hui Fen into top spot with 1369 albeit being over-shadowed by Korean women, who occupied the top six positions in the overseas pool.
Inspired with the challenge of competing against her more senior team-members and after finishing third in the Youth Girls Under-18 Masters finals two days agao, Joey Yeo chose to give it a try in the Open division.
And she flew past with flying colours in her fourth attempt kicking off with 259 in her opening game and following it up with 224 and 257 for a total of 740. Her superb effort gave her a 6-game tally of 1369 to move into the lead.
Joey Yeo RuoQi taking over the lead in the Women’s Open Masters qualifying table
Joey Yeo, who won the Milo Junior All-Stars Under-15 Masters title last year in Malaysia, also cause quite a stir when she led the Women’s Open Masters Round 1 finals in Bangkok last month but missed the stepladder finals finishing seventh in Round 2.
Overnight leader, New Hui Fen slipped down to second with 1335 while Amanda Ng rounded the top 3 in the local pool with 1322.
But Joey’s fine displayed was over-shadowed by the mighty Korean national women team when they occupied the top six positions in the overseas pool with national rookie, Lee Su-Jeong remaining in the lead with 1414.
Jung Da-Wun, Jeon Eun-Hee, Baek Seung-Ja, Kim Moon-Jeong and 2010 World Cup first runner-up, Gye Min-Young finished second to sixth with 1324, 1295, 1286, 1262 and 1260 respectively.
Meanwhile the lead in the Men’s Open Masters qualifying table changed hands substantially from yesterday. SEA Games bronze medalist and 2009 ABF Tour Hong KOng leg champion, Yeri Ramadona of Indonesia moved into the lead with 1373.
2010 Macau and Indonesia Open champion, Yannaphon Larpapharat of Thaiand surged into second spot with 1365 as Malaysian youngster, Yusuf Abdul Raof claimed third spot with 1363. Adrian Ang of Malaysia finished fourth with 1361 followed by overnight leader, Kim Tae-Young of Korea in fifth with 1356.
There were no changes in the local pool with Basil Low firmly in the lead with 1437. Low is also the overall leader when the championship started a week ago. Jason Yeong-Nathan and Joel Tan Eng An took second and third spot with 1391 and 1381.
The current cut in 12th position in the mixed pool stood at 1268 and is being held by Singapore’s Shaun Lau. This scoreline is predicted to be around the 1320-mark by the end of qualifying rounds tomorrow.
42 Men and 30 Women will qualify for the 10-games Round 1 Masters finals on June 1 and 6-games Round 2 Masters finals on June 2. The top 4 men and top 4 women will advance into the stepladder finals shootout.
Photos by Terence Yaw.