Maradona Chok
KUCHING: Tenpin bowling in Sarawak is way ahead of other states due to a very strong team of dedicated officials and coaches in the Amateur Tenpin Bowling Association of Sarawak (Abas) and also its cooperation with the management of a world class bowling arena.
According to Malaysian Tenpin Bowling Congress (MTBC) general manager Maradona Chok, Sarawak is only one step away from the national team in terms of guidance and technology.
Furthermore, Sarawak bowling has the strong support from the government through the Sarawak Sports Corporation headed by its chief executive officer Dr Ong Kong Swee.
“Sarawak has a very good system, a good team, the association is very strong and you have people like Sunny Si and Robert Lu who are the pillars of Sarawak bowling.
“They have been there for a long time and Jackson Ting has done wonders here in the development programme with a very good team of coaches,” he said.
Chok was in Kuching recently to officiate as the tournament director for the Sportexcel-NSC-Milo-MTBC Junior Circuit Sarawak Leg at Megalanes Sarawak, Batu Kawa.
The MTBC official who hails from Kota Kinabalu, Sabah noted that Sarawak has always been very good in terms of development as they do a lot of research in bowling, coaching and now with good facilities and technology, they are doing better than other states.
“It would be perfect to see Sarawak getting more training equipment and technology such as the Specto,” he said.
The Specto developed by Kegel, is computerised device system that tracks precisely, movement of the bowling balls delivered by an athlete.
It also measures angles and speed of the ball. It is a perfect device especially for training centres, coaches and athletes as it records information about the bowlers’ shots using a high-power sensor and displays it to them on an easy-to-use app.
“We have also encouraged other states to come here and see what Sarawak is doing. Your bowlers are going overseas for exposure, and exposure of coaches is very important,” he added.
Chok said MTBC had always regarded Sarawak as a factory for national bowlers when compared to other states and it never had any issues with Sarawak bowlers coming into the national team as they always perform in a very short period of time.
“Currently, we have Nerosha Keligit Thiagarajan from Kuching and Brandon Ting from Miri in the national youth team.
“We do see Nero moving up and hopefully she will get into the elite squad next year as she will be over aged for the youth team,” added Chok.
As for the national junior circuit, Chok said it is one of the biggest junior circuits in Southeast Asia with over 600 bowlers in the whole country.
One leg each is played in Sabah and Sarawak while the other six legs are played in Semenanjung Malaysia, with the grand finals to be held at Sunway Megalanes on Dec 18 and 19.
“The national junior circuit is one of our main talent identification platforms and our national coaches are always keeping an eye on talented bowlers.”
They will also be monitoring the bowlers in the forthcoming 18th Asian Schools Tenpin Bowling Championship in Kuching from Nov 11-17 at Megalanes Sarawak.
Malaysia will be represented by two teams, one from Sarawak and one from MTBC comprising three national youth bowlers and selected bowlers from the national junior circuit.
Chok said he had expected Sarawak to win the Sarawak Leg of the national junior circuit as Sarawak has always been the powerhouse in East Malaysia and in the country.
“But Sabah and Sarawak bowlers have very strong fighting spirit, they never give up and that’s why in the national bowling arena, they are always a threat to bowlers from other states,” he pointed out.