Singaporean captures third gold

20th November, Jakarta: Top seed, Cherie Tan captured her third gold medal of the 26th SEA Games Tenpin Bowling Championship with victory in the Women's Masters stepladder finals to give Singapore their fourth of the competition.  Cherie Tan also became the other bowler to win a medal in all five events. Tan easily defeated second seed, Sharon Koh of Malaysia, 497-372 to claim her third gold medal. She had picked up the Singles and Team gold medal before her third.

The champion, who chose the short oil pattern, relished on her stronger lane condition to romp home an emphatic 267-219 win in the first game to build up a healthy 48 pins margin. The Singaporean put in another scintilating second game performance winning 230-153.

"It was certainly great to have built up a good margin in the first game," said the 23-year-old Guangzhou Asian Games Trios gold medalist and 2011 EBT Masters champion, Cherie Tan.

"We were battling hard in the second block earlier and I had expected a tough match. Both of us were equally good on the short oil so I thought whoever can get more carry will win."

 

Tan was trailing Sharon by 27 pins going into the position round match but beat the Malaysian, 248-191 to advance into the stepladder finals as top seed.

In the earlier all-Malaysian semi-finals, Sharon struck out in her final frame to edge team-mate and third seed, Zandra Aziela 183-180 after the latter had an unlucky split in her final frame.

Zandra beat Singapore's Jazreel Tan, 237-211 in the position round match to take the final stepladder spot denying the Singaporean after hauling herself from seventh to fourth before the last match.

Shayna Ng, Daphne Tan, New Hui Fen and Jasmine Yeong-Nathan ended their campaign in sixth. ninth, tenth and 12th positions respectively. Singapore was the only country which had all their six women in the Masters finals.

Meanwhile, Singapore's best men performer was Ng Tiac Pin finishing sixth with 3540. Tiac Pin also shot the championship's second perfect game during the 12th match of the second block today. Singapore other finalists, Keith Saw finished tenth.

Adrian Ang also became the first men to win a medal in each of the five events contested. Ang, who make the stepladder finals as second seed, first ousted team-mate, Muhd Syafiq Ridhwan, 201-183 in the all-Malaysian semi-final.

The 23-year-old went on to beat top seed, Frederick Ong of the Philippines, 431-390 to win his fourth gold. The champion won the bronze in the Singles, gold in the Doubles, Trios and Team event before the victory in the Masters.

Ang went into the position round match, 64 pins behind Ong and despite winning the match, 258-247, had settle for second. Muhd Syafiq beat another Filipino, Biboy Rivera 213-197 to make the stepladder cut in third.

 

Malaysia concluded the week-long championship as overall champion with a medal haul of 5-3-6 making it their best-ever SEA Games performance. Singapore finished second with 3-2-2 medal haul. Philippines finished third with 1-4-1 while Thailand was the only other country to win a gold in the Women's Trios event.

Host nation, Indonesia won a silver in the Women's 5-player Team event and a bronze medal in the Men's 5-player Team event as well. Seven nation from the South East Asia region took part.

Detailed scores: Women's Stepladder Finals | Men's Stepladder Finals |

Photos by Terence Yaw in Jakarta.