9th December, Doha: World Singles Championships 2016 debutant and third-seed, Michael Mak brought home a bronze medal in the men's division after narrowly losing to second-seed Rafiq Ismail of Malaysia, 224-235 in the semi-finals.

Mak started the match against the Malaysian with a double strike in his first two frames while Raifq rolled four consecutive strikes. The Hong Kong national, who won three gold medals at this year's Asian Championships, responded with three strikes from the fourth frame to draw level.

Although Mak had a split in the eighth frame, he bounced back by striking in the ninth and tenth frame and could have taken the match had he rolled another in the 11th frame. But a solid pin 10 stood in his way deciding the tie in favour of Rafiq.

In the final gold medal match, top seed, Jesper Agerbo of Denmark breezed past Rafiq, 256-205 to win the gold medal as Rafiq settled for the silver medal. The Dane had another easy victory against fourth-seed, Joonas Jahi of Finland, 234-168 in the other semi-final match.

In the women's final, Kelly Kulick of USA, who became the first women to win the 2010 PBA Tournament of Champions, successfully defending the title she won at the inaugural championships in Cyprus in 2012 after beating fourth-seed and the Smithfield PWBA Tour champion, New Hui Fen of Singapore, 214-195.

The gold medallist, who also picked up US$6,000 as bonus, had earlier ousted another Singaporean and 2016 China Open champion, Shayna Ng, 216-172 to advance to the final. New narrowly defeated top seed, Shannon Pluhowsky of United States, 238-237 to face Kulick.

New was awarded the silver medal and received US$4,000 as bonus. Pluhowsky and Ng both received the bronze medal and a bonus of US$3,000 each.

Pluhowsky rolled a big game in the eighth and final game of the earlier Step 3 finals with 268 to clinch top seed for the semi-finals with 37.0 points. Kulick, who had a poor start earning only 1 point for each of her first two matches, crawled her way back up to finish second with 36.0 points and averaging 218.75.

8th December, Doha: 2016 Asian Championships triple gold medallist, Michael Mak of Hong Kong topped the Step 2 Group C finals of the World Singles Championships 2016 to advance to the last eight Step 3 finals.

Mak of Hong Kong came out tops in Group C with 42.5 points and an average of 225.50 in the 8-game match-play style in which the highest scorer in each game receiving 7 points, the second highest 6 points and so forth. Joonas Jahi of Finland trailed by 6.5 points with an average of 216.13 to secure second spot with 36.0 points.

Top qualifier, Christopher Via of United States topped Group A with 41.5 points. Jesper Agerbo of Denmark, who was the last qualifier in 32nd position, finished second with 41.0 points. The American averaged 237.00 while the Dane averaged 231.25 to advance to the next step.

Malaysian youngster, Rafiq Ismail was the highest points finisher with 43.5 points, averaging 237.25. Annop Arromsaranon of Thailand finished second behind Rafiq with 37.0 points with an average of 225.75.

The top eight men will resume with another eight games in one group in a similar format as today's Step 2 finals. The top four with with highest points will procedd to the medals head-to-head matches with the semi-finals.

The top seed will face the fourth-seed and the second-seed will meet the third-seed in a one-game playoff. The losers will each receive a bronze medal and US$3,000. The winner will advance to the championship match for the gold and silver medals. The champion will receive US$8,000 and the runner-up US$6,000.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Doha, Qatar.

4th December, Doha: 2016 Asian Championships triple gold medallist, Michael Mak gave a good account of himself to finish ninth in the Men's first block qualifying rounds at the World Singles Championships 2016 on Sunday.

Mak got off the block brilliantly with 263 to trail the leading duo of Marcio Viera of Brazil and Jamie Gonzales of Colombia. A poor 179 in the second game saw the Hong Kong national bowler dropping down the field as Gonzales took over the running.

Mak recovered with 227 and 237 in his next two games to end the first block with 906 to finish sixth position. Tomas Vrabed of Slovakia surprised the field to clinch pole position with 953 beating Squad 1 leader, Christopher Via of United States by 9 pins.

Rafiq Ismail of Malaysia, who was second to the American, settled for third position with 938. Jassim Al Muraikhi of Qatar, who was second to the Solvakian, took fourth spot with 929 while the Colombia completed the top five with 925.

Marek Talpa of Czech Republic, John Janawicz of United States and Aleksei Parshukov of Russia all finished ahead of Mak in sixth, seventh and eighth positions respectively. Hong Kong's second national, Rickle Kam found the condition a bit tricky ending in 54th position in a field of 81.

The women will contest their first block of four games tomorrow morning followed by the Men's Squad 1 resuming their second block of four games qualifying round. The Men's Squad 2 will bowl their second block on December 6 followed by the women in the afternoon completing two blocks.

The top 32 men and top 32 women in the general standings at the end of the third block will qualify for the Step 2 finals. Each division will be divided into four groups according to their rankings and will bowl against each player in a round-robin match-play style.

The bowler with the highest score will receive 7 points, the second highest 6 points and so forth up to the bowler with the lowest score receiving 0 point. The top 2 in each group will advance to Step 3 finals in one group bowling in the similar format as Step 2 finals.