Singaporeans make finals
29th February, Doha: Dubai Open first runner-up, Remy Ong made the Step 1 final of the H.H. Emir’s Cup 2012 in seventh position at the end of three blocks of qualifying rounds over the past three days while his compatriot, Benjamin Hong qualified in 11th. Fresh from finishing a creditable second in last week’s Dubai Open, Remy Ong was in a good run in his opening block rolling 202, 204, 204, 192 and 236 but a lowly 156 put the Singaporean fourth in Squad A and 11th overall.
In the extremely difficult lane conditions, Ong improved his second block with 1241 for fifth in the squad and moved up two notches in ninth with a 12-game total of 2438.
In the third and final block, Ong continued to fare well with 1237 to take up third in the squad with 3675 and was hopeful of a spot in the top 6 bracket which could earn an automatic qualification into Step 2 finals.
But Ong was robbed of a place when bowlers in the second squad bettered his score and pipping him by just 2 pins. Meanwhile, Benjamin Hong, who did not qualify for the Dubai Open, did much better this time round.
Hong also started off slowly with 1148 in the first block but then made great improvement in the second block with 1256 for a 12-game total of 2404. He ended the third block with 1214 for an 18-game tally of 3618 which put him 11th overall.
Hussain Al Suwaidi of UAE, who won two high series awards of US$200 each with 1336 in the first block and 1323 in the third block of Squad B, posted 1297 in the second block to finish in pole position with 3976.
Perttu Jussila of Finland, who also won two high series awards in the first and second block of Squad A with 1273 and 1277 respectively, registered 1237 in the third to finish second overall with 3787.
Shaker Al Hassan of UAE, who won Squad B second block high series with 1335 took third spot overall with 3769. Winner of Squad A third block, Yaqoub Al Shatti of Kuwait finished fourth with 3750.
Qatar’s Mansour Al-Awamy and 2010 champion, Mubarak Al-Muraikhi completed the top 6 in fifth and sixth positions with 3678 and 3677 respectively.
Taysier Al-Qusei of Palastine took the final cut position at 28th with 3452 on an average of 191.78. Ghanim M Bojasom and Jassem Al-Deyab were the top 2 Qatari youths earning automatic qualification in 29th and 30th.
Yousef Al-Jaber and Khalil Al-Mothen were the top 2 Qatari qualifiers outside the top 28 to also earn their places in Step 1 finals. Joseph Hasrooni (233) of Lebanon, Hussain Hijji (225) of Palestine, Ahmed Saleh Al-Baker (224) of Qatar and Mohammed Al-Jahromi (214) of Bahrain were the top 4 qualifiers from the desperado squad.
Qualifiers from positions 7 to 28, plus top 2 Qatari youths, top 2 Qatari finishers and top 4 from desperado squad will contest the Step 1 finals tomorrow over 8 games. The top 10 will join the top 6 seed qualifiers for the Step 2 finals on Friday, March 2.
Photos by Terence Yaw in Doha.