24th July, Bangkok: Top-seeds, Izz Naqiuddin Putera of Malaysia and Charmaine Chang of Singapore shared glory at the concluding 49th MWA-Thailand International Open Bowling Championship by capturing the Men's and Women's Open Masters titles on Thursday evening.

But the victory did not come easy for the Malaysian as he was forced into a sudden deciding match after losing the first match, 183-202 to challenger, Mike Ong of Singapore. Naqiuddin started off with a 9-spare and a double in his next two frames while Ong managed to make spares in his first three frames.

The Singaporean had two opened frames in the fifth and sixth whilst Naqiuddin made sure he had no opened frames. Ong fought back with a double in the seventh and eighth frames but the Malaysian struck three times from the eighth frame to seal victory, 223-183 for his maiden international title.

Ong had earlier dispatched second-seed, Tony Wong of Hong Kong and third-seed, Syazirol Shamsuddin of Malaysia, 258-212-214 in the second semi-final match. He also easily defeated fourth-seed, Aldric Bathan of Philippines and fifth-seed, Jaris Goh, 246-189-221 in the first stepladder match.

Meanwhile, Charmaine Chang needed only one match to capture the Women's Open Masters title after beating challenger, Siti Safiyah Amirah, 242-224 in the final stepladder match. Siti Safiyah eliminated her two team-mates, second-seed, Nur Syazwani Sahar and winner of the first match, Nora Lyana Nastasia, 231-158-201 to set up the final against Chang.

Sixth-seed, Nora Lyana ousted two Singaporeans, fourth-seed Shayna Ng and fifth-seed, Ning Tay, 225-194-216 in the Women's first stepladder final match.

Chang topped the earlier Round 3 finals with 1362 ahead of two Malaysians, Nur Syazwani and Siti Safiyah in second and third positions with 1336 and 1329 respectively. Ng, Tay and Nora Lyana made the stepladder finals in fourth to sixth positions.

Gillian Lim of Malaysia missed the cut for the stepladder finals by seven pins finishing in seventh with 1249. Izz Naqiuddin pocketed the top prize of 350,000 Thai baht (approx. US$4,700) as champion while Charmaine Chang took home 130,000 baht (approx. US$4,000) as the Women's champion.