26th August, Palembang: 2014 Asian Games triple gold medallist and Masters defending champion, Park Jong Woo of Korea topped the first block Men's Masters finals of the 18th Asian Games Palembang 2018 ahead of Chinese Taipei's Hung Kun-Yi in second and team-mate Koo Seonghoi third.

Trios silver medallist, Muhd Rafiq Ismail of Malaysia defeated team-mate, Muhd Syafiq Ridhwan 255-188 in the opening match of the Round-Robin finals to take the early lead. Team gold medallist, Park also beat Koo 247-232 in his first match to trail in second.

Trios bronze medallist, Muhd Jaris Goh of Singapore and sole Thai, Annop Arromsaranon both won their opening matches with 243 and 242 to take up third and fourth spots. Muhd Jaris won his second match with 257 to take a breif lead.

Hung rolled 223 for a win in his first match, lost his second match despite posting 265 but added a second win in the third match to take over the running. Koo won his second and third matches with 276 and 244 to move into second, just 13 pins away.

Although Park lost his next two matches, the Korean managed to return decent games of 251 and 226 to remain in the lead. Hung continued his relentless pace but only picked up one win to trail the leader by 21 pins.

Park closed out the first block with two additional victories for a total of 2031 and six wins with a record breaking average of 246.38. Hung also won all his remaining matches but settled for second spot with 1936 and six wins.

Koo gave Korea a one-three finish when he was placed third with a total of 1934 from just four wins. Lin totaled 1928 from four wins while, Muhd Jaris completed the top 5 with 1900. All-Events winner, Ryan Lalisang of Indonesia managed four wins but with a lower total pinfalls to end in a disappointing 15th position.

The men will resume competition with their second block of 7 matches and a position-round match with today's total pinfalls carried forward. The top 3 with the highest pinfall will advance to the Stepladder finals.