The Sarawak team celebrate with Angelo (third left) and (from left) Daniel Tan and Bong Kihow after the prize presentation at CPS Bowl, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah on July 14.
KUCHING: Host Sabah and Sarawak had equal share of the spoils in the Sabah Leg of the Sportexcel-NSC-Milo-MTBC Junior Circuit at CPS Bowl in Kota Kinabalu from July 13-14.
Mohd Zuhayr Redza Noor Azrul delivered the goods for Sarawak in the Boys Open after he beat second seed Sushanor Sihanor 183-227, 258-215 in the final.
Mohd Nur Syafiq Mohd Amran, who finished third, could have made it an all-Sarawak final if he had not lost to Sushanor in the semi-finals by one pin after both tied for 216. He knocked down nine pins while the Sabahan registered a strike in a one-ball roll off.
Gillian Lim completed a clean Sarawak sweep of the Open titles when the top seed beat Sabah’s Nurul Alyssa Junaidi 193-215, 230-224 in the Girls Open final. Third was Nur Aina Kamalia from Sarawak.
In the all-Sarawak Boys Graded final, upcoming youngster Tsen Fan Yew outgunned improving bowler Abdul Khadir Haziq Ramli 266-246 to lift the title. Sabah’s Nabil Aiman Mantaib finished third.
The Girls Graded title went to Sabah’s Intan Qistina Tamring who edged Nur Haziqah Ramli of Sarawak 188-190 and 244-233 in the step-ladder final.
Sabah’s Megan Tatiana Calary finished third after losing to Haziqah in the semi-finals.
Meanwhile, Sabah won the Boys U12 when Dennis Lai Teck Leong felled 1,788 pins over eight games, finishing 73 pins ahead of teammate Emmanuel Fo Yung Khee.
Sarawak’s Bernard Wong Chee Yan, Mohammad Hanif Irfan Sulhie and Marcos Chang Hao Hong were third and fourth and sixth respectively while Sabah’s Brendan Liew Tze Vui was fifth.
The U12 Girls crown also went to Sabah through Cara Loh Wai Theng who registered a total pinfalls of 1,910 over eight games.
Lavina Kho Jia Jie of Sarawak was second with 1,754 pins while Sabah bowlers Nur Wardina Polinu, Nur Aleeya Syakirah Ag Ali, Nur Jeehan Iezzaty Suffian and Sharon Viannie Lazarus F occupied the third to sixth spots.
Coach Angelo Koay, who led the Sarawak team with the assistance of Bong Kihow and Daniel Tan, expressed his satisfaction over the performance of the state bowlers.
“We sent 33 bowlers including 11 girls to Sabah and we had managed to maintain our performance over the past three years by sharing the titles equally with Sabah,” he said.
He was also pleased with the results as it was a good improvement having making more podium finishes this time around.
“We had more representatives in the finals, occupying seven out of 12 berths. Sarawak could have won the Girls Graded if Haziqah had not lost to Intan Qistina by a single strike in the sudden death game of the step-ladder final,” Angelo pointed out.
He was especially happy that the junior graded bowlers are starting to come into their own and closing the gap with their senior Open bowlers. Haziqah, who was the Girls U12 champion in 2014, had technically, physically and mentally improved a lot.
“I am also impressed with the performance of Tsen and Khadir who performed beyond my expectations,” he said, adding that Sarawak will be giving Sabah a tough time in the return led at Megalanes Sarawak in October.
The grand finals of the Sportexcel-NSC-Milo-MTBC Junior Circuit is expected to be held Megalanes Sunway Pyramid in January next year.