Singaporean makes historical stepladder finals

Singaporean makes historical stepladder finals

13th November, Mexico: Jasmine Yeong-Nathan became the first Singapore women to make the stepladder finals of the 44th QubicaAMF Bowling World Cup after she finished as topseed at the end of the eighth-games Top 8 round. The women's division first two spots were firmed up before the position round matches. Jasmine Yeong-Nathan of Singapore assured herself in the stepladder finals as topseed with four wins and four loses.

Her total was 9114, just 31 pins ahead of Aussie and defending champion, Ann-Maree Putney, who took second spot with 9083. The last spot was a more closely fought battle between England's Zara Glover and Sweden's Helen Johnsson.

There were just two pins separating Johnsson Glover with one game to go and they were playing each other in the position round. Glover opened the first frame and Johnsson opened the fourth.   Then both women started striking. The Englishwomen left a single pin in the tenth and spared it, then struck, meaning that the Swede had to strike with her first ball. She left a single pin, finishing with a 225 game to Glover's 237, giving Glover the coveted last spot in tomorrow's stepladder final.

Glover will face Putney in the semi-finals tomorrow with the winner meeting the Jasmine in the finals. Singapore has never won the World Cup either in the men's or the women's division. Jasmine will surely be trying to change that tomorrow. The top three to advance to the men's stepladder finals was more or less settled even before the position round matches were played. It was overnight leader, Derek Eoff who came out top again winning five matches and losing 3. Eoff's 40-games total plus 150 bonus points earned took him to 9369.

Sweden's Martin Larsen got the better of Malaysia's Zulmazran Zulkifli winning seven and losing just one match to amassed 9343 total to take second spot. Zulmazran, who shot the tournament's fifth perfect game yesterday, clinched the final stepladder spot with 9201, also winning seven and losing one match.

Canada's Jack Guay missed the cut despite winning four and losing four matches. His total of 8890 was 311 pins off the pace of the Malaysian. UAE's Hussain Al-Suwaidi suffered the worst defeat winning only just one match and losing seven to drop from fourth to seventh.   Larsen will face off with Zulmazran in a best-of-three match semi-finals match which will be televised. The winner will meet the topseed in the finals.

  Photos courtesy of QubicaAMF.