Squad 15 belongs to Singaporean

Squad 15 belongs to Singaporean

11th December, Doha: The first squad of the final day of qualifying in the 8th Qatar International Open belong to Singapore's Remy Ong when he shot 1301 to top Squad 15 on Thursday morning. Ong's previous best effort was 1266 shot last night in Squad 13 and decided to skip late night's 9.00pm Squad 14 to get a good rest and be fresh for today's qualifying round. The Singaporean started off well with 228, 238 and 195 in the first series.

Like many other competitors in the championship, maintaining consistent scores proved a handful when Ong only managed 170 in his fourth game. The southpaw recovered slightly with 210 in the fifth game making him needing a massive game in the last to improve his previous score.

Ong displayed tremendous fighting spirit to strike home from frame five onwards and ending the game with 260. His final surge gave Ong a total of 1301 and topping the squad. Russia's Ivan Semenov finished second in the same squad with 1295.   "This is my fifth attempt and each time, I had a shot of scoring more than 1300 but got close," said Ong. "Now that I've assured a place in the finals, I've one more squad which I'll go in much more relax and hopefully I can join Jason (Yeong-Nathan) in the top 6."

Jason has more or less confirmed his place in the finals in fourth overall after he topped Squad 8 with 1375. He will get two byes and directly into the Stage 3 finals while Ong has to contest the Stage 1 to make further advancement.

Current EBT ranking winner, Osku Palermaa of Finland maintained his pole position with 1402 followed by Ka Wan Kuo of Germany and Wu Siu Hong of Hong Kong in third. Jason and two Swedes, Peter Ljung and Martin Larsen are the top 6 finishers.

Detailed scores: Qualfying Squad 15 | Overall Qualfying Standings. Photos by Terence Yaw in Doha.