22nd March, K.Lumpur: Team Rest of the World (ROW) defeated Team Malaysia, 3-2 to win the 3rd edition of the Canon Cup 2009 and emerged as champion at Sunway Mega Lanes in front of a large capacity crowd on Sunday.

With five players from Team Malaysia challenging the five from the Rest-of-thw-World (ROW), the head-to-head opening match between Daniel Lim and Team USA member, Cassidy Schaub saw the American getting the better of Daniel to win 234-182 which gave Team ROW a one-nothing advantage.

Two-time Malaysian Open champion and PBA pro bowler, Shalin Zulkifli easily took the second match against Malaysian Open first runnerup, Geraldine Ng of Singapore, 227-186 to draw level and 1-1.

Debutant and second runnerup of the just concluded Canon 32nd Malaysian Open found his opponent, Wu Siu Hong of Hong Kong a handful and was beaten, 193-237 despite a strong finish towards the end of the third match.

The fourth match between newly-crowned Canon 32nd Malaysian Open champion, Carolyn Ballard of USA and Malaysia's Sharon Koh was side-sided when the American PBA pro downed seventh consecutive strikes to take the fourth match, 254-212 to give Team ROW, 3-1 and sealing the victory.

With the final match to play which would not affect the eventual result, the match between two-time champion, Zulmazran Zulkifli and Surasak Manuwong of Thailand gave us a repeat of the title match of the preceeding championship.

It turned out to be another thrilling re-match between Zulmazran and Surasak fighting throughout the match, neck and neck. The Malaysian prevailed to win the final match, 246-239 to salvage 1 point for Team Malaysia.

Malaysia settled for runnerup and RM15,000 which will be shared while the champion, Team ROW took home RM30,000 for their effort.

Ms Wang Hui Ching, Corporate Communications Manager for title sponsor, Canon Marketing (M) Sdn Bhd gave away the prizes.

The best 3 men and best 2 women from the Rest of the World were selected based on their finish in the preceding Malaysian International Open Masters while Team Malaysia were made up of 3 best men and 2 best women in the same finals which concluded Saturday.

Photos by Terence Yaw.