Singaporean takes over lead
14th October, Jakarta: Singapore's Remy Ong took over the lead in the Men's Open Masters qualifying table of the 2nd Ancol Open Bowling Championship on Wednesday at Jaya Ancol Bowling Center. Remy Ong, winner of this year's Bahrain International Open, shot 883 in his first attempt to take up third spot on Tuesday. Knowing that the scoreline would not be good enough to secure a place in the finals, the Singaporean took to the lanes this morning in an attempt to make an improvement.
The southpaw shot 232 in his opening game and followed it up with 230 and 243 and then scorched the lanes with a fourth and final game of 253 for a superb total of 958 taking him to the top of the leaderboard.
Ong has had several average showing since winning the Bahrain Open title and the nearest he got to making the stepladder finals was last month's Macau Open in which he missed the cut by just 6 pins in seventh position.
Jaya Ancol Bowling Center is well known to favour the left-handers better especially after Malaysia's southpaw, Alex Liew winning both the 2006 and 2007 Indonesia Open.
SingaporeBowling's other male representative in the championship were Ng Tiac Pin, who joined Ong after finishing tenth in the overseas pool with 864. Another left-hander, Lee Yu Wen finished third in the mixed pool with 846.
Ong dislodged overnight leader and Euro-Med Storm International Masters Challenge runnerup, Michael Mak and PBAP Classic Champion, Wu Siu Hong into second and third after the duo occupied the top spots on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Singapore Open Youth Girls champion, Kristel Oh qualified third in the Women's Open Masters overseas pool with 838 from leader, Shalin Zulkifli of Malaysia and Korea's Kim Eun Jung first and second.
Seasoned national bowler, Jennifer Tan took up fifth in the table with 826 ahead of team-mate, Nicole Wong eighth with 798.
Singapore Sports School's Tan Yan Ling stole the limelight after she topped both the Youth Girl's Under-21 and Under-18 standings 837 and 815 respectively. Kristel Oh, Clara Lau and Michaela Oehler joined Tan second to fourth in the mixed pool of the Under-21 division.
Michaela, Grace Tan, Joey Yeo and Tan Hui Wen, all of Singapore Sports School will also join Tan in the Under-18 finals after all made the cut in their qualifying rounds.
Qualifying will end tomorrow, October 15 and the top 36 men and top 28 women from the local, overseas and mixed pool will contest the first block 8-games Masters finals on October 16 and second block on October 17. The top 6 men and top 6 women at the end of the two blocks will advance to the stepladder finals.
Detailed scores: Men's Open Qualifying | Women's Open Qualifying.
Photos by Terence Yaw in Jakarta.