12th September, Kuching: 2025 Asian Para TPB9 Singles gold medalist and top-seed, Marcos Chang Hao Hong of Malaysia defeated challenger and second-seed, Amin Zulkarnain Bin Zulkifli of Wilayah Persekutuan, 256-234 in the stepladder final match to capture the 3DU title of the Sarawak International Open Bowling Championships 2025.

Chang started the title match with a double in his first two frames as Amin Zulkarnain spared his opening frame following it up with a strike in the second and third to draw level. The top-seed added another double in the fourth and fifth frames while his opponent failed to pick up a single pin spare in the fourth frame.

Amin Zulkarnain recovered and rallied on with four strikes-in-a-row to draw level again at the seventh frame but Chang struck four times to end with 256. Although Amin Zulkarnain doubled in the tenth frame, he ended with 234 for Chang to take victory.

The first runner-up, who had rolled the seventh perfect game of the championships, almost had another 300 when he trashed third-seed, Muhammad Isyraq Iqbal of ABAS, Sarawak, 299-259 in the earlier semi-final match to face Chang in the final.

Chang topped the 8-games finals with 2070 to advance to the stepladder finals as top-seed. Amin Zulkarnain finished second with 2039 while Muhammad Isyraq Iqbal made the cut in third with 1957.

Rayden Lim Yisheng of Singapore shot the sixth 300 in his opening game but ended in a disappointing 22nd out of 60 finalists. Chang pocketed RM8,000 as champion with Amin Zulkarnain and Muhammad Isyraq Iqbal earning RM4,000 and RM2,000 as first and second runners-up respectively.

The top 60 will contest the Classified Masters finals over 8 games and then a ninth position-round match to determine the top 3 winners. The Open Division finals will be held tomorrow at 9:00am local time. The top 4 finishers will proceed to the "Last Man Standing" stepladder shootout finals.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Kuching, Sarawak.

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