21st September, Tamuning: Paranaque's Maria Lourdes Arles, Taipei's Tsai Yu Shuo, Yigo's Manny Tagle Jr. and Subang Jaya's Poziah Atan captured the Women, Men, Men Senior and Women Senior Singles gold medals at the 38th Asian Intercity Bowling Championships on Monday.

Top-seed, Arles defeated team-mate and third-seed, Dyan Arcel Coronacion, 2-0 (202-170, 193-167) in the all-Paranaque final to capture the Women Singles gold medal. Coronation, who added a silver medal to Paranaque, had ousted second-seed, Wang Ya Ting of Taichung, 2-0 (203-198, 212-203) in the second semi-final match to advance to the final.

Arles rolled a strike in the one-ball roll-off after tieing 1-1 (184-192, 193-167) against a nine pin from Lin Shi Han of Taichung to make the final. Both Wang and Lin were awarded a bronze medal each.

In the earlier four-games qualifying round, the champion topped the field with 819 followed by Wang in second with 803. Coronacion amassed 775 for third while Lin snatch the fourth and final semi-final spot with 757.

In the Men division, fourth-seed, Tsai Yu Shuo of Taichung had a lucky break after his challenger and second-seed, Aldric Andreo Bathan of Paranaque put his one-ball roll-off in the gutter as the Taiwanese struck to capture the gold.

Both had tied 1-1 (258-180, 177-174) in the gold medal round, forcing the roll-off to break the tie. Tsai also had to strike in a one-ball tie-breaker after winning one match each (178-198, 221-147) in the semi-final against top-seed and fellow-countrymen, Jake Cheng Hsing-Yueh of Taipei, who shot nine pin to advance.

Bathan struck in a one-ball tie-breaker against team-mate, Jeffrey Carabeo's nine pin in the other semi-final match after a 1-1 draw (193-174, 177-205) to face Tsai in the final. Bathan settled for the silver medal while Cheng and Carabeo took home a bronze medal each.

In the Men Senior division, Manny Tagle Jr. of Ygio won the gold medal after defeating to-seed, Ng Yew Hup of Subang Jaya with nine pin over Ng's six pin again in a one-ball tie-breaker (201-172, 195-201) final. Tagle ousted third-seed, Sam Lam of New Territories with a nine pin against his opponent's three pins tie-breaker semi-final.

Ng eliminated fourth-seed, Rick Torres of Dededo, 2-0 (155-132, 195-194) in the other semi to advance to the gold medal round. Ng settled for the silver medal while Lam and Torres were awarded a bronze medal each.

Second-seed, Poziah Atan won Subang Jaya's first gold of the championship with a victory over challenger and fourth-seed, Gigie Maria Rhoda Laurel of Pasay, 2-0 (206-191, 191-185) in the Women Senior Singles final.

Atan edged third-seed Sheila Bangs of Dededo, 2-0 (181-133, 140-138) in the second semi-final match to reach the final. Laurel ousted top-seed, Datin Rakiah Ali of Subang Jaya with a strike against her opponent's nine pin in the one-ball tie-breaker after wining one match each (175-169, 197-132) in the first semi-final match.

Laurel took the silver with Datin Rakiah and Bangs taking home a bronze medal each. Datin Rakiah had earlier topped the 4-game preliminaries with 792 to advance to the medal round ahead of Atan in second with 744. Bangs and Laurel made the cut in third and fourth positions with 727 and 710 respectively.

Mr Mohd Farid Khalid and Mr Mervyn Foo, both AIBC Council members were on hand to present the medals to the winners of the four division Singles winners. Competition will shift to the Doubles event with the Men and Men Senior taking to the lanes for their preliminaries tomorrow at 10.00am local time.

The top 4 Men Doubles pairs and the top 4 Men Senior Doubles pairs will make the cut for the Baker-style medal rounds on September 23. The Women and Women Senior Doubles qualifying rounds will be held on September 23.

Again the top 4 Women Doubles pairs and the top 4 Women Senior Doubles pairs will qualify for the medal rounds immediately following their preliminaries. The Team of Four will be contested on September 24 and 25.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Tamuning, Guam.

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