Jonathan, Nerosha going for World Youth meet

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KUCHING: National youth kegler Jonathan Ding Sagan and state kegler Nerosha Keligit Thiagarajan will don the national colours for the 13th World Youth Bowling Championships in Hong Kong, China from Aug 6-15.

Nerosha Keligit

The two Sarawakians were selected to the national youth team based on their good showing at the recent Sukma XVII in Kangar, Perlis, the Interstate Bowling Championship and the Malaysian Open.

They are part of the four-boy and four-girl team from Malaysia who will challenge for top honours at the South China Athletic Association Bowling Centre.

In fact, another state bowler Daniel Tan Han Yan was also included in the selection list but the selectors opted for Jimmy Tan of Kuala Lumpur and Muaz of Kedah.

At Sukma XVII in Perlis, Daniel Tan won the gold medals in men’s singles, men’s trios and men’s team and a bronze in the all-events while Jonathan was a double gold medallist, winning in the men’s masters and men’s team.

Nerosha won the gold in the women’s doubles, silvers in women’s all-events, women’s trios and women’s team.

“We are pleased to have Jonathan and Nerosha playing for the country at the world championship and I am very sure that they can give a good fight in Hong Kong,” said Amateur Tenpin Bowling Association of Sarawak (Abas) deputy president Robert Lu yesterday.

The national team are now training at Sunway Pyramid Mega Lanes under Halloway Cheah.

“We believe they can do well and we would like to see another Sarawakian becoming a world champion after Jacqueline Jenelee Sijore won the World Women’s singles gold also in Hong Kong in 2012,” said Lu.

Meanwhile, Lu said he was impressed by the performance of the six state bowlers in the recent 8th Singapore Sports School-Opulent International Bowling Championships at SSP Bowling Centre.

“Although defending champion Jocelyna Judith Jonathan did not retain the title, she still made it to the top six in the stepladder final qualifying for the U18. Also in the top six of the stepladder finals for the U14 section was Mohd Zuhayr Redza Noorazrul,” he said.

Jocelyna was sixth while Mohd Zuhayr finished in fifth spot.

Jocelyna advanced to the stepladders final as the sixth ranked bowler with 1,268 pins and could only manage a 206 pins in the play-off against teammate Ahmad Aidil Abd Halim (203) and Kuek Qi En (202) of Singapore.

Ahmad Aidil (205) went on to beat second seed Charmaine Chang (196) of Singapore and Nur Amirah Auni Azman (186) of Malaysia in the semi-final only to lose 207-214 to the top seed Marcus Kiew Jiawei from Hong Kong in the final.

Mohd Zuhayr, who made it to the stepladders final as the fourth best finisher on 1,189 pins, could only knock down 169 pins in the play-off for the semi-finals berth against compatriot Wan Muhamad Naquib (174) and Singapore’s Oh Han Qin (164).

Wan Muhamad, the sixth seed, then emerged the winner in the semi-final with 222 pins over second seed Cheah Ray Han (204) and third seed Jarred Lim Jia Le (209) also from Singapore.

In the all-Malaysian final, Wan Muhamad managed to beat the top seed Hazim Ali Hanafiah 198-183 in the first game but Hazim rebounded strongly with 214 pins against his challenger’s 193 pins to lift the U14 title.

Other members of the Sarawak team were Mohd Uzair Redza Noorazrul, Nur Syafiqah Sajeli, Nur Aina Kamalia Abd Ayub and Anthony Luang Cheng, all part of the state’s back-up team for Sukma 2016 and 2018.