15th August, Kaohsiung: Lapasdanai Chusaeng of Thailand bagged the Youth Open Masters title of the 19th Kaohsiung International Open by a huge margin over Chinese Taipei's Chi Yun-Fan in second and Macau's Wong Son Ian in third.

The 20-year-old Thai national youth member got off the six-games finals with a superb 222 to lead Wong by 10 pins as Tseng Hung-Tzu of Chinese Taipei was the only other finalists to have started off with a 200-game.

Lapasdanai added a splendid 241 in his second game to extend his lead to 42 pins as another Chinese Taipei youth, Li Yen-Wei moved into second spot with 230. Wong slipped down to third despite adding 204 in her second game.

The leader rolled a stunning 258 in the third game to take his lead to a massive 130 pins as Li stumbled to a lowly 170. Wong was unable to take advantage of the opportunity to move ahead of the Taiwanese posting only 171.

There was simply no stopping the Thai after he registered yet another huge game of 277 to stretch his lead to 194 pins after the fourth game. Wong traded second spot with Li with 208 while Li rolled 200.

Another strong game of 223 in the fifth gave Lapasdanai a comfortable 226 pins margin as he eased off with 169 in the sixth and final game to end the finals with 1390. 2017 Asian School two silver medallist, Chi Yun-Fan of Chinese Taipei stormed home to snatch second spot with 1241.

Wong settled for third position with 1223 while Li and another Taiwanese youth, Lai Wen-Hsien rounded out the top five with 1168 and 1159 respectively. The champion took home a trophy and a cash prize of NT$30,000 (approx. US$950.00).

Chi and Wong picked up NT$15,000 and NT$12,000 and trophies as first and second runners-up respectively. The Senior Masters finals will be contested shortly after lane maintenance while qualifying for the Open and Graded division will end late tonight.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Kaohsiung, Chinese Taipei.