6th March, Manama, Bahrain: 2013 PBA-WBT Saudi Open firt runner-up, Michael Mak of Hong Kong went pass Round 2 and Round 3 Finals of the PBA-WBT #8 Kingdom of Bahrain International Open to advance into Round 4.
But the 19-year-old Hong Kong national bowler had to work doubly hard to earn his place in the next round. Mak was cocnsistent in his first four games of Round 3 finals with 216, 213, and back-to-back 204 but was unable to register high games.
Two-handed Osku Palermaa of Finland got off the block with a stunning 279 but slowly slipped down the field when he failed to match up with his opening game. American PBA pro, Mike Fagan took over the running after the third game and went on to end the finals with 1402 to take pole position.
2011 Kuwait Open champion, Chris Loschetter of USA, who had a strong run in the fourth and fifth games, settled for second position with 1326.
Michael Mak advancing into the fourth round finals
Debutant, Brad Angelo stormed home with 246 and 234 in his last two games to snatch third spot with 1308 giving United States a top 3 finish. Mohammed Sultan did his country very proud by taking up fourth with 1281.
The fight for the last two spots was keenly contested between Chris Barnes of USA and Michael Mak of Hong Kong. Barnes, who had just 9 pins cushion over Mak, struck out to end with 212 while Mak ended with 215.
Fortunately for both, Palermaa had a chance to take one of the last two spots away from them but suffered 167 to end in eighth position with 1223. Daugherty's 213 in his final game came too late losing out by 12 pins to finish seventh with 1226.
In the earlier Round 2 finals, Craig Nidiffer topped the field with 1401 followed by Tom Daugherty in second with 1253 to give United States a one-two finish.
Mak took third spot with 1234 and Hameed Taqi, Mohammed Sultan and Barnes secured their places in the next round with 1220, 1212 and 1210 respectively. A third Bahraini, Mohammed Janahi missed the cut by a 49 pins to finish seventh position.
The top 6 finishers in Round 3 finals will join the six seeded qualifiers positioned 7 to 12 for another 6 games in Round 4 Finals. A second Hong Kong national, Wicky Yeung earned two byes after qualifying in 12th position.
The field will be cut to top 6 and again will be joined by the top 6 seeded qualifiers positioned 1 to 6 for Round 5 finals.
The top 3 at the end of ROnd 5 finals will proceed to the stepladder grand finals. The champion will walk away with the top prize of US$25,000 with the first and second runner-ups earning US$12,500 and US$8,000 respectively.
Round 2 top 3, Michael Mak, Craig Nidiffer and Tom Daugherty
Photos by Terence Yaw in Manama, Bahrain.
3rd March, Manama, Bahrain: National bowler, Wicky Yeung turned in another stella performance in the second block of his qualifying rounds at the PBA-WBT #8 12th Kingdom of Bahrain International Open to take second spot in Squad B behind Mika Koivuniemi of Finland.
Yeung, who completed his first block second to Thailand's Yannaphon Larpapharat yesterday, got off to a cracking start with 255 in the seventh game to take over the running, 24 pins ahead of Keith Saw of Singapore.
The Hong Kong national bowler suffered a set back in the eighth game when he managed only 178 handing the lead to Koivuniemi, who followed up his seventh game of 238 with a stunning 267. Keith remained in second while Yeung dropped down to third.
The lanky Finn held the lead for another game but not for long as Yeung bounced back with 226 and 220 to regain the lead with Koivuniemi behind in second and trailing by 22 pins.
Wicky Yeung finishing a superb second in the squad
Koivuniemi ended the second block stronger of the duo to top the squad with 2625 on a much improved second block score of 1360. Yeung also ended strongly to take second spot with 2598 while overnight leader, Yannaphon stormed home to clinch third with 2572.
Keith settled for fourth position with 2570 as Yasser Abu Alreesh of Saudi Arabia, who shot a superb 1319 6-game series completed the top 5 with 2518. Eric Tseng made up grounds to move up from 11th to seventh position with 2498 so did Michael Mak finishing in ninth with 2468. Wu Siu Hong also improved from 18th to 11th but Rickle Kam and Mike Chan struggled to end in 20th and 21st positions respectively.
Koivuniemi, who was eighth in the overall qualifying standings, moved into the top bracket based on an average of 218.75. Squad C and first block overall leader, Shaker Al Hassan remained in the lead with an average of 237.83.
Top Bahraini, Yousif Falah is second with 224.75 followed by the Finn in third and Yeung in fourth with 216.50. Yannaphon completed the top 5 of the top bracket with 214.33 average leaving position 6 reserved for the top Bahraini outside the top 5.
Keith headed the second bracket in seventh with 214.17 while Ahmed Fareed of Bahrain occupied the last spot of the second bracket in 12th position with 208.83.
Eric Tseng of Hong Kong headed the third bracket with 208.17 and Joel Tan of Singapore occupied the last spot of the third bracket in 18th position with 204.67.
Ahmed Jabber of Bahrain headed the fourth and final qualifying bracket in 19th position with 204.50 and the cut at 27th position is held by Bader Al Shaikh of Saudi Arabia with an average of 209.92.
Top 3 in Squad B, Yeung, Koivuniemi and Yannaphon
Squad C will complete their second block later today and the remaining three squads, which will consist of new entries and re-entries, will be contested on March 4 and 5. The final qualifying standings will then be finalised.
Photos by Terence Yaw in Manama, Bahrain.
2nd March, Manama, Bahrain: National bowler, Wicky Yeung got off to an encouraging start at the PBA-WBT #8 12th Kingdom of Bahrain International Open after finishing third in his opening block of Squad B on Sunday.
Sithiphol Kunaksorn set the opening pace with a superb 237, 3 pins ahead of newly-crowned H.H. Emir Cup champion, Chris Barnes of USA in second and 2013 MILO All Stars champion, Keith Saw of Singapore third a further 3 pins away.
Barnes, the two-time PBA Bowler of the Year, shot into the lead after the American followed it up with another fine 236 as the Thai slipped down to trail by 38 pins with Rickle Kam of Hong Kong moving up to third.
The PBA pro held the lead up to the halfway mark albeit only 7 pins as a second Thai, Yannaphon Larpapharat closed in onto the American in second and Kam holding on third spot.
Wicky Yeung finishing an encouraging third in his opening block
Keith rolled a strong game of 247 in the fourth after he had amassed a respectable 635 in his first 3-game series to take over the running as Yannaphon continued to occupy second position and Barnes slipping away quickly.
Another 256 in the fifth games from the Singapore youngster allowed him to stay in the lead and widen his gap from 11 to 22 pins going into the sixth and final game. Yannaphon ended stronger with 216 to snatch the lead with 1332 while Keith suffered a set back with 179 to settle for second with 1317. A second Hong Kong national, Wicky Yeung stormed home with 247 and 267 in his last two games to leapfrog into third spot with 1310.
Michael Mak finished a respectable seventh position with 1234 while Rickle Kam slipped down to tenth with 1222, just one spot above team-mate, Eric Tseng in 11th with 1217. Wu Siu Hong struggled to take 18th and debutant, Mike Chan in a lowly 23rd position.
Squad A has been cancelled with Squad B and C being contested over two blocks of 6 games each. There will three additional squads - D, E and F from March 4 to 5 and the combined scores from all the squads will finalise the standings.
The top 6 qualifiers (top bracket) will earn three byes into Round 5 finals. Qualifiers positioned 7 to 12 (second bracket) will earn two byes into Round 4 finals and qualifiers positioned 13 to 18 (third bracket) will earn one bye into Round 3 finals.
Qualifiers positioned 19 to 27 plus the top 2 Bahrainis not in the top 27 and a top Bahraini women will contest the Round 2 finals. The top 6 after the finals will advance to join the 6 quaifiers from the third bracket for Round 3 finals.
Hong Kong national bowlers in Squad B
Again the top 6 finishers of Round 3 finals will be joined by the 6 qualifiers from the second bracket for Round 4 finals. The top 6 finishers here will finally be joined by the 6 qualifiers from the top bracket for Round 5 finals.
The top 3 finishers in Round 5 finals will proceed to the TV Shootout finals to determine the champion. The top prize for the champion is US$25,000 and if he is a PBA member, he will be awarded an international PBA title.
The 12th Kingdom of Bahrain Internationa Open is the eighth stop of the 2014 PBA-World Bowling Tour and will earn tour ranking points toward qualification to the Grand Finals.
Photos by Terence Yaw in Manama, Bahrain.
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