Singaporean denied victory

Singaporean denied victory

26th February, Dubai: Round 3 pole sitter, Remy Ong of Singapore was denied his first victory of the year after going down to eventual champion, Osku Palermaa of Finland in the second stepladder match of the 1st Dubai International Open on Friday. Remy Ong, who had topped Round 3 on Thursday, set a cracking pace with 248 in his opening game of the 8-games Round 4 finals on Friday. The Singaporean continued his relentless pace to chalk up 208, 223, 216, 220 and 203 to lead the next five games.

Despite posting 215 in the seventh game, strong games from Naif Oqab allowed the Emirati left-hander to take over the running albeit only 7 pins ahead. Ong fought on galantly with 215 and 211 but had to be content with second spot with 1744.

With the Round 3 score of 1796 carried forward to add to his Round 4 score, Ong amassed a total of 3540, 5 pins from Naif, who totaled 3454 to take pole for the stepladder finals. Another left-hander, Shaker Al-Hassan finished third with 3506 while two-handed Osku Palermaa advanced in fourth with 3469.   In the first match between No. 3 seed, Shaker and No. 4 seed Palermaa, the Finn edged Shaker, 198-183 to advance into the next match against Ong. After knocking out the Singaporean, the Finn went on to win the first match, 302-176 against the top seed, Naif.

In another closely fought deciding match, the Finn was in total control winning by 217-193 to bag the title and take the top prize of 60,000 AED (approx. S$26,000) by conquering three lefties in the process.

Naif settled for 30,000 AED while Ong took home 15,000 AED for his effort. Shaker, who finished fourth, won 7,500 AED. Bowlers from 13 countries took part in the inaugural Dubai Open held at the Dubai International Bowling Centre.   Detailed scores: Open Stepladder Finals | Open Round 4 Finals | Photo Album. Photos by Terence Yaw in Dubai.