17th March, Kuwait: Hong Kong national bowlers, Wicky Yeung and Milki Ng put in creditable performances in the ABF Tour Tournament of Champions after both finished as first runner-up in the Men's and Women's finals on Monday.
Yeung, who has yet to capture an ABF Tour title, almost ended with his biggest win but was unlucky to go down to Surasak Manuwong of Thailand, 191-226 in the title match.
Both started off with a split in the opening frame and was struggling to recover. Whilst Surasak rolled four consecutive strikes from frame 5 as Yeung encountered another split. The 34-year-old Hong Kong national did roll four strikes from frame 6 and had looked good to level things up.
Yeung delivered a seemingly perfect pocket shot in the tenth frame only to see pin 7 and 10 standing firmly eliminating all chances of a win.
First runners-up, Milki Ng and Wicky Yeung
The Thai doubled up again in the tenth frame to seal the victory and win his first-ever TOC title pocketing the top prize of US$20,000 forcing Yeung to settle for US$8,000.
Yeung edged Hussain Al Suwaidi of UAE, 172-161 to advance to the final match while Surasak beat Yousif Falah of Bahrain, 213-179 to reach the finals.
Yueng sailed past Kuwaiti Khaled Al Dubyyan, 224-172 in the quarter-finals and Surasak also beat a second Kuwaiti and 2013 ABF Tour top-ranked, Rakan Al Ameeri, 222-216 in his opening knockout round.
In the earlier women's final match, Milki Ng started off on equal footing when the Hong Kong national and her opponent, Sharon Limansantoso of Indonesia rolled a double strike each. Whilst Limansantoso made no mistake in her next four frames, Ng stumbled to a back-to-back split.
Although Ng recovered with a double strike in the eight and ninth frames, a third split in the final frames handed the victory to the Indonesian, 178-199.
Ng edged Filomena Choi of Macau in a low-scoring 150-146 semi-final match to advance to the finals and Limansantoso ousted a second Macau national, Hui Tong, 195-169 to face Ng in the title match.
The champion picked up US$10,000 for her second TOC title. Her first TOC victory was in 2010 in Kuwait. Ng took home US$5,000 as first runner-up. A second Hong Kong national and two-time TOC winner, Chan Shuk Han lost to Choi, 147-149 in the quarter-finals.
Newly-crowned champions, Sharon Limansantoso and Surasak Manuwong
Sheikh Talal Al-Sabah, President of Asian Bowling Federation and Kuwait Bowling was on hand to present US$20,000 to Surasak and US$10,000 to Limansantoso.
The top 16 men and top 16 women based on their tour rankings earned in 2013 out of nine legs qualified for the Tournament of Champions. They contested 10 games in Round 1 qualifying for the field to be cut to top 8 men and top 8 women for today's quarter-finals knockout rounds.
For further information and details, please contact ABF Tour Committee at Tel: +852 2893 6039, Fax: +852 2893 6290; Email: hktbc@netvigator.com.
Photos by Terence Yaw in Kuwait.
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