19th March, Kuwait: Top seeds, Jason Belmonte of Australia and Vanessa Fung of Hong Kong ended the 2nd Kuwait International Open winning the Men's and Women's titles.

The World Youth Gold medalist, had earlier topped the 8-game Top 8 block with an accumulated total of 5804 before out-classing his challenger and fourth-seed, Ahmed Shaheen of Qatar, with 221-158 to take his first 2005 title.

Shaheen, who lost to Shalin Zulkifli in the H.H. Emir Cup just last month, had to settled for second again despite ousting third-seed Andres Gomez of Colombia, 203-198 in the first stepladder match and then second-seed, Andrew Frawley of Australia, 191-153 in the second match.

Belmonte won for himself the top prize of US$25,000 while Shaheen settled for US$12,000. Frawley and Gomez took home US$8,000 and US$5,000 for finishing third and fourth respectively.

Hong Kong's Vanessa Fung, who led in the Top 12 finals to take pole position going into the stepladder finals, defeated fourth-seed, Kirsten Penny of England, 204-175 to win the Women's title. Fung had finished first with 1772 pinfalls over 4 games on short-oil and 4 games on long oil before winning the top prize of US$5,000.

The runner-up, Penny settled for US$3,000 despite knocking out second-seed and World Championship Gold medalist, Zara Glover, 196-154 in the second match and third-seed, Putty Armein of Indonesia, 181-151 in the first match. Armein took home US$2,000 for her effort.

The top 16 men made the cut for the second leg of the ABF Tour Kuwait which will be held tomorrow (20th March) before the third leg in Malaysia on the 26th and 27th March.

For detailed scores, please visit www.kuwaitbowling.org.

Photos courtesy of Egypt Bowling Federation and MTBC.

17th March, Kuwait: It was beyond Singapore bowler Shaun Ng's wildest dreams as he struck not one but two perfect games at the US$150,000 Kuwait International Open on Tuesday as bowlers srambled for a place in the Masters finals.

The right-handed hook bowler rolled 12 consecutive strikes twice en-route to posting the tournament's second highest three-game series with 797 total. The highest of 798 came from Qatar's Bandar Al-Shafi.

They were also the first perfect gmaes in Ng's career. "It's unbelievable. To get the first was already special but to get two in the same day within two hours, I could not ask for more," said Shaun.

Added national assistant coach Mervyn Foo, "What makes it more remarkable is that he hit one perfect game under short oil lane condition and another under long oil lane conditions. That's not easy." Ng will share the US$3,000 with Malaysia's Choy Poh Lai, the only other bowler to hit the prefect game.

Shaun is seventh with a total of 2,581 (238 average), 117 pins adrift of leader, Ahmed Shaheen of Qatar (2,968). Other Singapores in the 79-man field include Alvin Kwang (22nd-2821), Remy Ong (26th-2798), Lee Yu-Wen (45th-2643) and Carl de Vries (38th-2610).

England's Kirsten Penny lead the 21-women field with 2834 ahead of Denmark's Britt Brondsted on 2826 in second. World Championship Gold medalist, Zara Glover of England finished third with 2738.

Singapore's charge is led by 3rd Guam Open champion, Evelyn Chan with 2600 while jennifer Tan (14th-2565) and Rena Teng (15th-2520) has yet to make the top 11 overseas bowlers for the finals. Sarah Yap (8th-2603) and Zandra Aziela (10th-2594) made the cut but Esther Cheah and H.H. Emircup champion, Shalin Zulkifli tied in 12th position with 2566.

There is two more squads on the morning of 18th March and an additional Desparado Squad for men only, when the top 4, based on one game will join the top 24 men, top 4 local for the finals.

The top 11 plus the top local women will contest their finals starting 18th March in the afternoon. For detailed scores, please visit www.kuwaitbowling.org.

Photos courtesy of Egypt Bowling Federation and MTBC.