Singaporean snatches pole
25th February, Dubai: 2009 Qatar Open champion, Remy Ong is vying for first title of the year after the Singaporean snatched pole position in Round 3 finals of the 1st Dubai International Open Bowling Tournament on Thursday evening. Remy Ong, who squeezed into the Round 3 finals after finishing eighth in the earlier Round 2, set a blistering pace with 279 in his opening game to lead top qualifier, Wu Siu Hong of Hong Kong by 34 pins.
The 31-year-old southpaw held the lead with 224 and 206 in his next two games until the halfway mark when the Singaporean lost the lead to Wu, but only two pins adrift. Disaster struck both We and Ong when they shot 167 and 168 respectively handing the lead to the two-handed, Osku Palermaa of Finland.
But the Finn’s lead was brief as UAE maestro, Mohamed Khalifa Al-Qubaisi siezed the opportunity to take over the running at the sixth game. Mohamed Khalifa’s compatriot, Shaker Al-Hassan fired 256 and 264 to storm into the front, 30 pins ahead going into the final eighth game.
It looked like Shaker will end the block in the lead but Remy Ong bounched back the strongest with 276 to take pole with a total of 1796. Shaker settled for a good second with 1793, just 3 pins behind the Singaporean.Mohamed Khalifa took third spot with 1738 while Palermaa finished fourth with 1714. Two massive games from Naif Oqab saw the Emirati left-hander moving up from ninth to fifth on 1702 while Round 2 leader, Jordan Evan of the Philippines clinched sixth spot with 1700.
Indonesia’s Ryan Lalisang finished seventh with 1686 as the eighth and final spot went to another Emirati, Hussain Al-Suwaidi with a total of 1666. Wu Siu Hong’s poor 181 in the last game dropped him out of the top 8 and missing the cut by 9 pins.
The top 8 advanced into tomorrow’s Round 4 finals for another 8 games with pins carried forward from this round. The top 4 at the end of Round 4 will proceed to the stepladder finals.
Detailed scores: Open Round 3 Finals | Photo Album.Photos by Terence Yaw in Dubai.