Sarawak bowlers strike six of six

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Champions of the various categories after the prize presentation. — Photo courtesy of Megalanes Adventure World

Champions of the various categories after the prize presentation. — Photo courtesy of Megalanes Adventure World

KUCHING: Sarawak made a clean sweep of six titles at the Sarawak Leg of the Sportexcel-NSC-Milo-MTBC Junior Circuit at Megalanes Adventure World, King’s Centre on Friday.

It was a historic achievement of sorts as this was the first time that the state junior bowlers had won all the categories at stake.

The Sarawakians were obviously enjoying their home ground advantage as they captured the Boys Open, Boys Graded, Boys U12, Girls Open, Girls Graded and Girls U12 in the two-day championship.

Top seed Brandon Ting Lik How beat third seed Abang Afiq Yazid Abang Azman 211-171 in the final to lift the Boys Open title. Afiq moved into the final after ousting second seed Allexiss O’neil Edward 228-164 in the semi-final.

Perhaps the most impressive performance came from St Joseph Private Secondary School’s Sushil Pubalan, who as the third seed, outbowled the top seed Abner Loo Chun Lik in the final.

The UPSTN AA trainee was fourth in the first round of the Boys Graded with 1,237 pinfalls and in the second round on Friday, he was in ninth position after three games.

However, he recovered strongly to string a line of 230, 280 and 225 in the last three games to end up as the third seed for the final with 2,559 pinfalls.

Sushil then defeated second seed Musayyar Khalid 212-203 in the step-ladder semi-final to set up a final clash with Loo and there was no looking back for him as the bowler who finished in 11th position last year beat Loo

194-185 in the first game and 230-152 in the second game to lift the title.

The Boys U12 title was won by Jardel Sean Marcel who led from start to finish with a total pinfalls of 1,853 after 12 games to beat teammates Tsen Fan Yew (1,692) and Lim Jie (1,520).

Marcos Chang Hao Hong, Azumi Ahmad Zaini and Suvan Pubalan completed the Sarawak clean sweep of the top six positions with 1,510, 1,462 and 1,428 pinfalls respectively.

Sarawak also swept the top six positions in the Girls U12 category, with the title going to Nur Hazirah Ramli who felled a total of 1,795 pinfalls, followed by Lavinia Kho jia Jie (1,714), Rachel Loo Yee (1,700), Dayang Yumi Azreen Abg Azman (1,664), Asya Dania Azree (1,660) and Rasya Aleeya Zainuddin (1,626).

In the Girls Graded step-ladder finals, third seed Nur Shasya Nazira Sazali upset top seed from Sabah Nurul Ayunni Junaidi 206-168 and 269-180.

Shasya made the final after disposing of teammate Amanda Ting Bao Er, the second seed, 183-159 in the semi-final.

The top qualifier and top seed in the Girls Open Nur Syafiqah Sajeli staved off a determined fight from third seed Gillian Lim to win the title.

Syafiqah lost 166-185 in the first game but bounced back to win the next game 227-179.

All the top three winners received a medal and a tin of Milo while those finishing in fourth to sixth place received a tin of Milo each.

Amateur Tenpin Bowling Association of Sarawak deputy president Robert Lu gave away the main prizes.

The Sabah Leg of the national junior circuit will be held in Kota Kinabalu from Aug 28-29.