10th January, Hong Kong Squad 1 leaders, Kim Donghyeon of Korea and Cherie Tan of Singapore won the Men's and Women's Singles gold medals at the 26th Asian Tenpin Bowling Championships underway at SCAA Bowling Centre on Tuesday.
Kim had got off to a superb start reeling in 289 in his opening game of the opening squad, 10 pins ahead of Hong Kong's Tony Wong and Syafiq Ridhwan of Malaysia sharing second spot. A second Malaysian, Ahmad Muaz rolled the championship's first 300 in the second game to take over the running.
Kim and Macau's Lam Iek Long tied second spot after the latter shot a sizzling 289 while the Korean rolled 257 in stay with the leader. Qatar's Nasser Al Sahoti, who started off with a respectable 256, fired back-to-back 278 to take up second after the third game.
A third Malaysian, Muhd Rafiq Ismail had 289 in the second and 256 in the third to take up third. Muaz continued his relentless pace reeling in 257, 267 and 253 to remain in the lead and maintaining a decent margin against his nearest rivals. Kim and Ismail stayed close with good games to trail Muaz.
Men's Singles winners, Ahmad Muaz, Kim Donghyeon and Rafiq Ismail
The Korean ended the strongest to snatch top spot with 1605. Muaz managed only 221 to end up in third with 1575 while Ismail rolled 267 to claim second spot with 1579. Ridhwan was unlucky to finish fourth with 1562, just 13 pins adrift.
In the Men's second squad, the lead changed hands four times. First with Putana Buspajikonkul of Thailand taking the early with 278. Malaysia's Tun Hakim rolled the championship's second 300 to take over the lead after the second game.
Korea's Lee Ikkyu led after the third game and despite following it up with 279, 268 and 258, the Korean was unable to overhaul the top five finishers of the earlier squad and had to settle for sixth with 1549.
In the women's division, Cherie Tan, who topped the first squad with 1525 remained unchallenged to win the first gold medal for Singapore. Malaysia's Natasha Roslan, who trailed the Singaporean lefty most of the way, took the silver medal with 1476.
Korea's Hwang Yeonju took home the bronze medal with 1459. In the women's second squad, a second Malaysian, Nora Lyana Nastasia took an early lead but was soon overtaken by Singapore's Shayna Ng. Ng and Nastasia were the only two who could beat Roslan and Hwang for the medals with their strong pace.
But Nastasia fizzled off while Ng, who only needed a strike in her final frame of the last game to snatch the silver, threw a gutter ball and despite sparing it, ended up only in fourth overall with 1457 and missing the podium by two pins.
The competition will shift to the Doubles event tomorrow, again divided into two squads. The medal ceremony for the Singles will be held after the end of the Doubles.
Photos by Terence Yaw in Hong Kong.
Top 3 Women's Singles, Natasha Roslan, Cherie Tan and Hwang Yeonju