Tenpin bowlers eye 10 gold at Asean Para Games

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The Malaysian national para tenpin bowling team. — Photos courtesy of Steven Teng

KUCHING: The National Sports Council have set a target of 10 gold medals for the national tenpin bowling team at the 9th Asean Paralympic Games in Kuala Lumpur from Sept 17-23.

National head coach Steven Teng Chee Man is pretty confident that this target is achievable because his bowlers will be have home advantage as they are training at Sunway Megalanes, the competition venue.

In the last Asean Para Games in Singapore in 2015, Malaysia won eight out of the 14 gold medals.

This year, the tenpin bowling events from Sept 19-22 offer 18 gold medals.

“Thailand are our Asean main rivals while South Korea are our main rivals in the Asian Para Games,” said Teng.

The Malaysian team comprises 13 men and five women including three Sarawakians Jimmy Siang, Jeff Wong Kee Soon and Nur Syazwani Marais.

Wong was the men’s doubles gold medalist in the B9 (Lower Limb/Amputee Disability – Standing) at the Asian Para Games in Guangzhou, China in 2010 with his partner Abu Bakar Nyat.

Four years later in the Asian Para Games in Incheon, South Korea, he and Abu Bakar won the men’s bronze medal in the same category.

Wong was the double gold medalist in Asean Para Games in Singapore in 2015 where he won the men’s singles and men’s doubles events.

Para tenpin bowling in Asean Para Games is divided into seven categories namely B1 (No light perception for both eyes), B2 (From ability to recognise visual acuity of up to 2/60), B3 (From ability to recognise visual acuity of 2/60 to 6/60), B4 (Learning/Intellectual Disability), B8 (Wheelchair), B9 and B10 (Upper Limb Disability-Standing).

Teng was in Kuching recently with the national team which was undergoing a week-long training camp at Megalanes Sarawak, Batu Kawa to prepare for the Asean Para Games.

“The venue for Para Games is also the venue for SEA Games, so we had to move our training to Sarawak,” said Teng who was very impressed with the facilities at the nation’s biggest bowling centre.

“They have the same oiling machine they used in Sukma XVIII and it is the same as Sunway Megalanes’. It’s cooling here and the environment is bowling and OKU friendly while the lanes are the same as Sunway Megalanes.

“The centre is housed in a shopping mall where there is a supermarket and the food in the restaurants here is good,” he added.

According to Teng, the national bowlers had been preparing for the games since last year.

“We had originally 17 bowlers and it was increased to 28 last month,” he said.

Sarawak was chosen for the training camp as the state had developed many high calibre para bowlers and Teng felt that it was good to have the national team to play/spar with local bowlers.