14th December, Bangkok: Tran Hoang Khoi of Vietnam sprang a surprised victory over Napat Buspanikonkul of Thailand in the Men's Singles final to win the first gold medal of the 33rd SEA Games Bowling Championships at Blu-O Rhytmn & Bowl Ratchayothin.

Buspanikonkul started off the gold medal match with three strikes-in-a-row to open up a 29-pin lead over Tran after the Vietnamese suffered a split in the second frame. The Thai then also encountered a split in the fourth frame while Tran recovered with a turkey from frame four.

Another a failure to spare the sixth frame by the Thai allowed the 16-year-old Vietnamese two-hander to struck out from frame eight. Buspanikonkul did fight back by striking home from the ninth frame but Tran sealed victory, 235-210 to claim the gold medal.

Buspanikonkul edged second-seed, Muhammad Syazirol Shamsuddin of Malaysia, 211-210 in the first semi-final match to reach the final. The champion trashed third-seed, Mark Jesus San Jose of Philippines, 226-149 in the other semi to book his spot in the final.

San Jose dispatched top-seed, Rafiq Ismail of Malaysia, 266-213 to advance to the semi. Shamsuddin ousted seventh-seed, Supakrit Wantasuk of Thailand, 215-180 to advance to the semi-finals.

In the earlier 6-games qualifying round, Rafiq Ismail topped the round with 1383 to advance to the quarter-finals as top-seed. Shamsuddin joined his team-mate in second with 1340. Tsen Fan Yew of Malaysia, who finished third did not make the cut as there can only be two qualifiers from each nation.

Jomond Chia and Mike Ong advanced in fourth and fifth positions with 1270 and 1263 while two other Singaporeans, Ryan Toh and Nu'main Syahmi had to give up their spots. Tran Hoang Khoi advanced in eighth with 1246 while Buspanikonkul, Wantasuk and San Jose filled up the three spots available after the trio finished ninth, 10th and 1th positions respectively.

The women will contest their Singles qualifying round tomorrow morning at 10.00am local time. The top 8 at the end of the round will make the cut for the quarter-finals.