Singaporean takes third spot

2nd March, Barcelona: After a superb run in the Top 24 finals of the VI Catalonia Open in which Remy Ong of Singapore finished third to make the stepladder finals, the Singaporean lost 177-184 to Jari Ratia of Finland to settle for third spot. Remy Ong, who joined by Shaun Ng to compete at th VI Catalonia Open at the 14-lane Bowling Pedralbes in Barcelona organized by the Catalonia Bowling Federation, had made the finals in sixth position with a 6-game total of 1384.

Shaun Ng also did well to qualify for the finals in 21st position. Melvin Ocando of Spain topped the table with 1456 ahead of Tore Torgersen of Norway second and Sweden's Robert Andersson third with 1405 and 1396 respectively.

But Ong really got everyone at Bowling Pedralbes took notice of the southpaw as he knocked down 927 over the 4-game Top 24 Stage 1 and with fifty percent of the earlier qualifying scores added, Ong had amassed a total of 1619 to finish second to Thomas Gross of Austria, who took top spot with 1636.   Shaun Ng also gave a good account of himself when he finished 16th with 1513. Ong added lines of 227, 216, 239 and 186 for a 868 total in the Top 24 Stage 2 for a grant total of 2487 and making the cut for the stepladder finals in third spot. Finn, Pasi Uotila took top seed with 2517 after a superb 905 series while another Finn, Jari Ratia posted 1005 to finish second ahead of Ong with 2488.

Both Ong and Ratia started off the first stepladder match with a strike but teh Singaporean suffered a 6-split which must have unsettled Ong as he missed a single pin in the third frame. Ong then rebounded with 3 strkes in a row forcing Ratia an open frame in the sixth to trail by 3 pins.

Another disasterous split in the seventh frame clearly costed Ong the match as he simply could not mount aother comeback to end the match with 177 as the Finn narrowly took the match with 184.   Jari Ratia went on to edge top-seed and fellow-countrymen, Pasi Uotila, 194-193 to clinch the title and the Euro 12,000 top prize. Runner-up, Uotila settled for Euro 6,000 as Ong won Euro 3,000 for his effort. Photos courtesy of Keith Hale, Bowlers Journal International.