Third gold for Sarawak girl, Malaysia win overall title

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Winners of the Girls Doubles and their coaches pose with Tenpin Bowling India secretary Kannan Ramachandran after the prize presentation.

Winners of the Boys Doubles and their coaches pose with Asian Bowling Federation tournament director Danny Santos after the prize presentation.

The Malaysian medallists in the doubles competition. — Photo by Teo Chi Wei

KUCHING: Malaysia A stayed right on track to win the overall  title in the 18th Asian Schools Tenpin Bowling Championships when they captured two more gold, two silver and one bronze medals at Megalanes Sarawak, Batu Kawa yesterday.

That brought their medal haul to four golds, six silvers and two bronzes to top the medal tally, followed by Hong Kong A (2-1-1), Australia A (1-1-0), Indonesia A (1-0-1) and Singapore A (0-0-3) after three days of intense competition.

Gillian Lim bagged her third gold in the meet when she scored 1,246 pins, partnering Najwa Nazirah (1,221), Puteri Nurul Dini (1,304) and Nur Aina Kamalia (1,188) for a combined score of 4,959 pins to top the Girls Team event.

Taking the silver medal were Australia’s Kylie Bailey, Emily Johnston, Chloe Jones and Jamie Phelan who finished 21 pins behind.

Malaysia A’s second gold of the day came from Puteri Nurul Dini who topped the Girls All Events with 3,773 pins, followed by Gillian Lim (3,769) and Singapore’s Zong Shin Yi (3,665).

The bronze went to Singapore A’s Fion Liew, Fiona Yew, Zong Shin Yi and Arielle Tay who garnered 4,605 pinfalls.

Wibianzo Joaque, Marvin Santoso, Patrick M Hernandez and Paolo M Hernandez produced a sterling performance to deliver the first gold medal for the Indonesian team after they scored 5,183 pins over six games in the Boys Team event.

Malaysia A comprising Muhd Hazim, Tun Ameerul Hakim, Muhd Arif Iskandar and Ahmad Azriq finished in second spot with 5,077 pins while Abang Afiq Yazid, Tsen Fan Yew, Muhd Nur Syafiq and Morgan Chang of Malaysia B took the bronze with 4,857 pins.

Ivan Tse of Hong Kong A collected his second gold medal of the tournament when he topped the Boys All Events with 3,949 pins.

Malaysia A’s Muhd Hazim and Ahmad Azriq bagged the silver and bronze medals with 3,927 and 3,924 pins respectively.

Malaysia A and Malaysia B team manager Robert Lu had expected his bowlers to finish on the podium.

“To win gold medals is wonderful. We have achieved two gold medals on the second day and that put a lot of stress on our shoulders.

“As for the rest, we just hope that they can maintain their form and still make it to the podium, but I don’t know what the colour the medals will be,” he said.

On Gillian’s performance, Robert – who is also Amateur Tenpin Bowling Association of Sarawak vice president – felt that she had been working hard with Sarawak head coach Jackson Ting since the end of Sukma XVIII last year.

“Her physical game has improved tremendously,” he added.

Gillian’s parents Tony Lim and Angeline Wee were also at Megalanes Sarawak to show support.

“I am extremely happy, I know she worked very hard and we gave her the best possible equipment for this tournament.

“The vital technical coaching from Jackson to help Gillian prepare for the tournament also worked out well.

“We think that she will do well but do not know what the colour of the medals will be. She did well in the singles and winning the doubles is due to the coach Wendy Chai,” Tony said.

After the fourth game, Gillian and Najwa were trailing the rest of the field and after a wake-up call from Wendy, the duo produced two big games in the final two frames to win the event.