Singaporean clears first hurdle
7th November, St. Petersburg: Singapore's Remy Ong cleared the first hurdle to join teammate, Daphne Tan in the Top 24 of the 43rd QubicaAMF Bowling World Cup at the end of the 24-game qualifying round n Wednesday evening. Remy Ong, who started off well in his opening block in eighth position, dropped to 11th after the second block on Monday. But the 30-year-old recovered slightly to move back up to eighth before the fourth and final block.
With lines of 238, 227, 198, 238 and easing off with 180 and 145, a total of 1226 was sufficient to secure his place in the top 24 with a 24-game total of 5182 and in ninth position. Ong will join teammate, Daphne Tan, who also made the cut in 20th position earlier.
Meanwhile, Jason Belmonte of Australia, confirmed his supremacy on the lanes as he ended the block in top spot with a total of 5606. His 1400 series also became the highest 6-game series in this final block.
Belmonte widened his margin from 87 pins to 117 pins ahead of USA's Bill Hoffman, who regained second position after dropping to fourth overnight. Hoffman amassed a total of 5489 to finish ahead of Colombia's Andres Gomez in third with 5461.
Norway's Glenn-Morten Pederson dropped to fourth from second with 5393 while the 20-year-old Brazlian student, Marcel Suartz rounded up the top 5 with 5371. Finn, Petteri Salonen took sixth position with 5315 followed by 2005 champion, Michael Schmidt of anada seventh on 5281.
Squeezing into the 24th and final spot was Palo Lopes of Portugal on a total of 4999 and an average of 208.29. The top 24 field will be presented by seven from the American zone, five from the Asian Zone and the other half of the field from the European zone.
The top 24 will bowl another 8 games tomorrow with scores from the qualifying round carried forward during which the field will be cut to top 8 for the quarterfinals on Friday, November 9.
Detailed scores: Men's 4thBlk | Photo Album.
Photos by Terence Yaw and courtesy of Hero Noda and QubicaAMF.