19th February, Hong Kong: The success of the Australian team at the 12th Asian Youth Tenpin Bowling Championships just concluded in Hong Kong demonstrated the abundance of talent and suggested that Australian bowlers will take on the world of tenpin bowling in the foreseeable future. The Championship has not seen such domination by a single nation since its inception over twenty years ago in Manila in 1981.

The Aussies notched up a total of 33 points from 4 Gold, 2 Silver, 3 Bronze medals and a fourth placing. The boys were especially outstanding clinching three of a possible five medals contested and finishing a mammoth 28 points ahead of nearest rival Japan, on 8 points.

It was certainly a fantastic improvement from the last Championship in Abu Dhabi in 2001 where the Australians took home just one Silver medal in the Boy's Doubles event.

Undeniably, the star of the show was 20 year-old TBA Male Youth Bowler of the Year, Jason Belmonte. The unorthodox-styled bowler mastered both the Long and Short Oil conditions sweeping the 3, 6 and 12 game records with 764, 1509 and 2776 en-route to winning the Boy's Singles event. Belmonte went on to win the Boy's Doubles Bronze medal when he partnered Jarrod Lean while the other pair of Mathew O'Brien and Brandon Qualischefski claimed the 6 game record with 1478 and established a 12 game record of 2742.

The boys, anchored by Belmonte won Australia's second Gold medal when they ran away with the Team event by a margin of 81 pins over the strongly finishing Hong Kong boys in second. At the same time, Qualischefski again smashed the 6 game individual record in the Team event with 1410.

Topping off an eventful championship, Belmonte clinched the Boy's All Events gold medal, establishing a 30 game record of 6757, equalling fellow countryman Michael Little's success in winning the Masters Gold medal during the 15th WTBA World Championship 2003 in Kuala Lumpur.

Qualischefski seized Bronze, missing Silver by just 24 pins after a stellar performance by Hong Kong's Wu Sui Hong in the Teams event saw him leapfrog into second place with a record-breaking 800 on the final three games on Long Oil.

Japan finished second in the Boy's medal points tally and fourth Overall guided by the outstanding individual performance of Isao Yamamoto. The 22 year-old won back-to-back Masters title when he ousted the Aussie star, Jason Belmonte in the stepladder finals with 413-310 two-game total.

Japan ended the outing with 1 Gold, 1 Silver (from Yamamoto's second in the Singles), 1 Bronze medal (from the Girl's Team event) and three 4th placings.

First timer, Kuwait also achieved a milestone in its bowling history when Basil Al Enezi and 300-scorer Hussain Mohhamad triumphed in the Boy's Doubles event. Hussain broke the individual 1 game record by scoring the perfect game in this event while the pair erased the 3 and 6 game record with their 1345 and 2666 score lines.

With former World Cup champions Amanda Bradley, Maxine Nable and Cara Honeychurch from Australia graduating from the youth ranks, it took Australia several years to produce potential world-class bowlers.

At this event in Hong Kong, the girls won Australia's fourth Gold medal of the Championship after Toni Woodcock, Michelle Halprin, Clair Johnston and Jadye Flanagan triumphed in the Team event.

"The girls are firing well," said Coach Cheryl Munson prophetically at the end of the first block on short oil during the Teams event. "I told them today they have to go hard into the second block and with the quality and ability of the bowlers we have here, I'd be very disappointed if we didn't come home with a medal after today," she said. "They've worked very well as a team and I think the only thing that's been missing this week has been their self-confidence," she added.

Woodcock's 6 game total of 1258 in the Teams event squeezed her into the Masters finals finishing 16th in the Girl's All Events table, just 4 pins ahead of Wang Ya Ting from Chinese Taipei. Australia's Clair Johnston was top-placed Australian female in the All Events, finishing in 8th position.

In an unprecedented result, all four girls and boys of the Australian team made the Masters finals.

Korea again finished second in the Overall medal tally, as in 2001 in Dubai, UAE. They took home 2 Gold , 1 Silver, 3 Bronze medals and four 4th placing for 24 points, after topping the Girl's medal table with 20 points from 2 Gold, 1 Silver, 1 Bronze medal and three 4th placing.

Nam Bo Ra, who took the Silver in Dubai went one up snatching the Gold in the Girl's Singles from leader Valerie Teo in the last game. A stunning high game of 278 swept the 22 year-old to victory by 27 pins. She also broke the 1 game record held by fellow Korean Won Mi-Young since 1993 with the 278 game and established the Singles benchmark for 12 games with 2515. But undoubtedly, the girl that shone for Korea was the Masters Gold medallist, Choi Gui Hyun.

Choi, who made the stepladder finals in second position survived a first match win over 3rd-seed Kazumi Satoh of Japan by a solitary pin, 206-205. When she played the top-seed Valerie Teo Hui Ying of Singapore with the title at stake, she was firing all cylinders taking the first match 257-236 and 235-205 in the second for an emphatic win and a 2-game total of 492-441.

Perhaps the title for best girl bowler of the Championship belongs to Singapore's Valerie Teo Hui Ying. Despite losing the Girl's Singles to Korea's Nam Bo Ra in the final 12th game, she came back with a vengeance in her next event.

Partnering Michelle Kwang Tien Mei, the Singaporean pair was trailing the leaders by 55 pins before the 12th and final game. 19 year-old Valerie rolled a record-breaking 300 game to clinch the Gold medal and posting a stunning win with a 42 pin margin.

"It's fantastic - they worked very hard, Valerie was so determined - I love her spirit," said Singapore Tenpin Bowling Congress President, Jessie Phua, beaming after the win. Valerie described the game as the "toughest game of my life".

"After enduring the disappointment of leading throughout the Singles, only to be overtaken in the final game by Nam Bo Ra, she had a point to make," said Coach Pat Henry following the Doubles. "They were more than 250 off the pace at the start of the block - it was pretty impressive," he added.

Valerie Teo went on to win the Girl's All Events Gold medal and was perhaps a little unlucky to lose in the stepladder finals, settling for the Silver. All in all, Singapore took home 2 Gold and 2 Silver medals, plus a fourth placing - a considerable improvement on the last Championship in Dubai when they went home empty handed.

Probably the biggest disappointment of the Championship was the Malaysian team. Overall champions in two previous Championships,

winning 3 Gold and 2 Bronze medals in 1999 in Singapore and 4 Gold, 1 Silver and 2 Bronze medals in 2001 in Dubai they finished fifth overall in Hong Kong without a single gold medal.

Teams from 17 countries throughout the Asian region had traveled to the spectacular city of Hong Kong for the 12th Asian Youth Championship, hosted by the Hong Kong Tenpin Bowling Congress from the 8th - 15th February. Five medal events were contested in both Boys and Girls divisions - Singles, Doubles, Team of Four, All Events and Masters, with a combination of short and long oil lane conditions for the Singles, Doubles, 4-person Team and Masters event.

"The goal for this tournament is to challenge the versatility of the best Youth bowlers in Asia by having them bowl on two different patterns," explained ABF President, Vivien Fung before the tournament began. "Two pattern tournaments promote the ability to think, adjust and react to the conditions...the distances are varied enough to allow the players a chance to excel," she added.

"The WTBA Technical Committee has spent two years researching to come up with a level playing field for bowlers of different styles and the dual oiling pattern was to be implemented commencing last year in all official WTBA and Zone championships," Ms Fung explained. "The Zones have been encouraged by WTBA to try different formats of play using the dual oiling pattern - the Asian Bowling Federation had in fact tried this in 2002 during

the 17th Asian Tenpin Bowling Championships in Hong Kong and the feedback was very positive," she said.

Tournament Director, Dr Danny Santos organised an additional survey of participants during the Championship to gain response to the dual-lane conditions. "I was really happy that during the Team Managers meeting there was no argument about the concept of two patterns being used and we had very positive feedback, including the format of six plus six games" he said.

The results of this survey, and further feedback from officials and the Technical Delegate, Kegel's Don Agent, will be collated for assessment by the Asian Bowling Federation and the WTBA in setting conditions for future Championships.

For further information, please contact Ms Lynne Clay, ABF Media Director at Tel: +61 419 444 280 or email lynne.clay@tenpin.org.au.

Summary by Terence Yaw, Asst. Hon. Secretary/MTBC and Ms Lynne Clay.
Photos courtesy of HKTBC and Hussien Sayad.