PETALING JAYA: The 38th Malaysian International Open Bowling Championships at the Sunway Mega Lanes here from April 29 to May 7, will be a platform for national keglers to earn a ticket to the Singapore SEA Games.
National tenpin bowling head coach Holloway Cheah said the performance of the players at the championship in Sunway Pyramid would decide the composition of the national team.
“We have already gone through a few selection process during tournaments like in Europe, Asia, Thailand Open. This will be the last one and all depends on how they perform plus their past record in tournaments.
“All of them are very close, so we cannot name them yet and the only one who looks safe is Sin Li Jane, the rest are very close. Rafiq Ismail is definitely outstanding but don’t forget that there are very experienced bowlers like Alex Liew and Nur Aiman Khairuddin,” he told reporters at a press conference to announce the Malaysian International
Open Bowling Championships.
Cheah said based on their performance, both elite and junior squad bowlers would have an equal chance of being selected for the national squad.
“For example Nora (Lyana Nastasia), is from the backup squad but her performance is outstanding. So she will be in our books,” he said.
Meanwhile, Malaysian Tenpin Bowling Congress (MTBC) secretary-general Cheah Ban Cheng said World Bowling
Tour’s (WBT) top ranked bowler, Dominic Barrett of England, the 13 times European Bowling Tour (EBT) title winner, Osku Palermaa of Finland, Australia’s George Frilingos and defending champion Cherie Tan of Singapore were among the international challengers in the championships.
“We also have world-class bowlers coming from Japan, Korea, United Arab
Emirates (UAE) as well as Thailand’s SEA Games squad,” he said urging bowlers like Siti Safiyah Amirah Abdul Rahman to gear up to win the title.
The championships offers RM362,500 in prize money for the winners from nine categories, namely men’s and women’s Open, Graded (men and women), Youth Open (boys and girls), Youth Graded (boys and girls) and Senior Masters. — Bernama