Two identical series for Singaporean
The 31-year-old Singapore immediately settled down to a good momentum to fire 279, 215 and 210 for a series total of 704. But a lowly 508 in his second attempt yielded only a 24th place finish.
Despite improving slightly with 673 in Ong’s third attempt, he remained in 24th place. Ong failed to improve after knocking down 665 in the subsequent Squad 9. Determined to end the day’s qualifying on a high, Ong made his final attempt of the day in Squad 10.
Ong occupied third position with 1408 followed by Hong Kong’s Wu Siu Hong in fourth after he improved with a Squad 10 effort of 747 and a total of 1394. Day 1 high series award winner, Khaled Al-Doseri of Qatar took fifth with 1385.
Kuwait’s Basel Al-Azni, Bahrain’s Yousif Falah and last year’s champion, Patrick Healey Jnr completed the top 8 with 1380, 1362 and 1354 respectively. The top 8 qualifiers will automatically advance to Step 2 finals.
The field will be cut to top 8 in Step 1 finals and together with the top 8 seeded qualifiers advance into Step 2 finals.
The 16 bowlers will play 8 games from scratch and the top 8 at the end of Step 3 finals will advance to the knockout stage where the top seed will be matched with the No. 8 seed, No. 2 seed with No. 7 seed and so on for a two-game total pinfall count.
The winners of the Step 3 finals will proceed to the semifinals and thereafter the 2-game total pinfalls title match to determine this year’s champion and a top prize of 75,000 Riyal.
Detailed scores: Overall Qualifying Standings | Photo Album.