20th Asian Youth Tenpin Bowling Championships
Singapore, Malaysia shares Masters glory
Photo Album 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Medal Album

25th April, Kuching: Team gold medallist, Xavier Teo captured Singapore's sixth gold medal of the 20th Asian Youth Tenpin Bowling Championships with victory in the Boy's Masters finals while Gillian Lim picked up the second gold medal for Malaysia in the Girl's division.

The 18-year-old topseed lost the first match to challenger and second-seed, Muhammad Hafiz of Malaysia, 224-225 but fought back gallantly in the second match with a 208-202 win to capture his first-ever major title with a 432-427 two-match total pinfall.

The victory capped off a best-ever outing for Singapore in the Asian Youth Championships series which concluded at Megalanes Sarawak on Thursday evening. Hafiz, who easily brushed aside third-seed, Moon Hayeong of Korea, 224-165 in the first stepladder match, settled for the silver while Moon took home the bronze.

In the earlier second block Round-robin Masters finals, overnight leader, Shahrukh Amin of Malaysia continued where he left off with a win in the opening match but struggled in the medium oil pattern losing all his remaining seven matches to finish fifth with 3373 total.


Masters gold medallists, Xavier Teo and Gillian Lim

Moon took over the running after winning four consecutive matches but only managed to lead in the 12th and 13th matches. Teo won five straight matches before losing to Hafiz in the position-round match but advanced to the stepladder finals as topseed with 3569.

Hafiz and Moon made the stepladder finals in second and third position with 3499 and 3450 respectively. Singles silver medallist, William Clark of Australia missed the cut by 42 pins to finish fourth.

In the girl's division, local gal Gillian Lim defied all odds to win her second gold medal of the championships with victory over topseed, Shin Hyebin of Korea, 384-348 over the two-match championship round.

The 20-year-old Malaysian took the first match 200-184 and edged the Korean, 184-164 in the second match to give her country the second gold medal of the championships. Lim, who tied third position after the position-round match with team-mate, Nur Syazwani Sahar, survived the one-game roll-off to break the tie with a narrow win.


Boy's Masters medallists, Muhammad Hafiz, Xavier Teo and Moon Hayeong

She went on to edged second-seed, Charlene Lim of Singapore, 200-191 in the first stepladder match to earn a crack at the title. Shin, who topped the earlier second block Masters finals with 3488, advanced to the stepladder finals as topseed.

The Singaporean finished second with 3375 to join the Korean while Lim and Syazwani tied in third position with 3327 forcing the need for a one-game tie-breaker.

Singapore emerged as overall champion with a medal haul of 6-0-3. Singapore boys also took the Boy's Overall title with four gold medals. Malaysia finished second overall with 2-4-2 and emerged as Girl's Overall champion with 2 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze medal.

The only other country to have won a gold medal was Philippines and Macau picking up the Boy's and Girl's Singles gold medals on the first day of the championships.

All players and officials were treated to a rare victory celebration at the cinema to watch the private screening of The Avengers End Game.


Shin Hyebin, Gillian Lim and Charlene Lim with with Masters medals

The banquet was held at the foyer of the cinema where the Overall, Boys and Girls champion countries' trophies were presented. A total of 40 boys and 36 girls from ten countries participated in the week long championships.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Kuching, Sarawak.


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