Singapore youths denied home victory

30th May, Singapore: Singapore youths, Eugene Low and Denise Chan were denied a home victory as the Low finished second to Malaysian Kang Bo Long in the Youth Boy's Masters and Chan took second spot behind Taiwanese Wang Tien-Wen in the Girl's division.  Twenty-four youths took to the lanes at Superbowl Safra Mount Faber in the first masters finals of the day which saw Travis Tay setting a blistering pace with an opening game of 278 for a 37 pin lead ahead of fellow compatriot, Ng Tiac Pin.

But the lead did not last as Ng had two back-to-back 241 and 244 games to snatch the front running by 3 pins. Ng kept up his hot pace to reel in 210 and 203 in the third and fourth and stretching the lead to 56 pins after the fourth game.

Malaysian national youth rookie, Kang Bo Long then shot 198 and a massive game of 288 in the fifth and sixth games to take over the lead followed by top qualifier, Eugene Low trailing in second.

  

With a 40 pin cushion, the 22-year-old proshop supervisor at Diaman Bowl in Johor Bahru kept a consistent pace to end the 10-game final with 2120 to land his first youth title on his first international outing in Malaysian colours.

Kang, who won last year's Pahang International Open in the men's division finished 38 pins to deny Singapore a home victory. Eugene Low settled for second with 2082 while another Malaysian, Muhammad Fazrin Khairul Faizi storming home to snatch third spot with 2075.

Pace-setter, Ng Tiac Pin fizzled out to take fourth spot with 2063 followed by Thailand Open champion, Ernie Cheng Hsing-Chao of Chinese Taipei fifth on 2057.

Meanwhile, 2006 Asian Schools Masters gold medalist, Wang Ting-Wen cruised to a comfortable victory in the Youth Girl's Masters denying again a Singapore home victory when the Taiwanese totaled 2104.

Wang had taken an early lead but shared the lead with Singapore's Denise Chan after the second game. The duo traded the lead for the next two games but it was the Taiwanese spinner who was more consistent throughtout to end the finals 106 pins ahead of Denise.

Denise settled for second with 1998 followed by last year's Youth Girl's champion, Gina Lim third on 1968. Geraldine Ng and Ong She-Na finished with less than 10 pins seperating the top 5 with 1967 and 1956 respectively.

   Photos by Terence Yaw for SBF.