17 August, Melaka: Four youths claimed victories in this year's final leg of SportExcel-NSC-Milo-MTBC Junior Circuit with Perak claiming two titles, Pahang and Sekolah Sukan Bandar Penawar taking one each.

Norsyazana Rosli won her second consecutive title in the Girl's Graded crown and qualified for the Grand Prix Finals in pole position. She narrowly beat Sonia Teoh of Melaka, 347-341 in the finals despite the home crowd rooting for her opponent. Syazana also took a sweet revenge over Sonia when she lost to the latter in the Negeri Sembilan Leg.

The topseed ousted seventh-seed, Nursyafiqah Bt Ramli of Kedah, 384-358 in the semi-final to move into the finals. She had earlier cruised to a comfortable victory over eighth-seed, Nur Shahira Bt Abdul Manaf of KL, 393-366 in the quarter-finals.

In the Boy's Graded category, youngster Abdul Basit B Mohd claimed his maiden victory after beating topseed, Khoo Kim Yoon of Melaka, 346-337 in the finals. This 13-year-old from Sekolah Sukan Bandar Penawar was overjoyed with his victory as this was only his second year bowling.

He thanked his coach Mr. Lamjah and En. Abdul Rahman for all their guidance and support. With this win, he also made it into the GP Finals in 12th position. Abdul Basit reached the finals after defeating Farhan Afiz of Negeri Sembilan, 384-341 in the semi after disposing off fifth-seed, Yap Sai Mun of KL, 379-349 in the first round.

SUKMA Trios gold medalist, Farah Izzazaya from Pahang took the Girl's Open title, her first SportExcel Circuit title of the year beating third-seed, Siti Nazwa of Johor, 411-396 in the finals.

Her also meant that she qualified for the Grand Prix Finals as topseed. En-route to her victory, she beat two KL youths, Radin Nur Najwa, 368-330 in the quarter-finals and fourth-seed Nastasya Adam, 416-312 in the semis to reach the finals.

It was an all-Perak affair in the Boy's Open category from the semi-finals onwards. Five bowlers from Perak had qualified for the knockout round and four of them made it into the semi-finals.

Shin Chern Yew rised to the occasion to beat compatriot and topseed, Muhd Fazrin, 400-382 in the finals giving the fifth-seed a first win in the Open category. The champion narrowly defeated third-seed, Teh Lit Qing, 407-376 in the semi and fourth-seed, Muhd Saman of Pahang, 350-343 in quarter-finals.

Muhd Fazrin settled for second despite cruising into the finals knocking out compatriot and seventh-seed, Equine Lam, 428-380 in the semi. The runner-up beat the eighth-seed, Muhd Amsyar, 436-389 in the quarter-finals.

The Melaka leg completed the eight legs held in Peninsular Malaysia for this year's Junior Circuit. The Grand Prix Finals will be held at Mega Lanes Kuantan from August 28-30.

Photos by Ms Tay Li Neo, MTBC.

16th August, Melaka: Melaka youths shone in round 2 of the SportExcel-NSC-Milo-MTBC Junior Circuit Melaka leg as Khoo Kim Yoon and Tan Siong Ling finished 1-2 in the boy's graded division to advance into the knockout finals while Perak youths took five final slots in the open division.

Competing for the first time in the junior circuit, Melaka's Khoo Kim Yoon came off with flying colours by advancing into the knockout finals as top seed. Khoo, who also led in round 1 yesterday, amassed a 14-game total of 2781 after another superb round 2 score of 1138.

Tan Siong Ling, who was third overnight, improved to second with 2718 to give Melaka a 1-2 finish as Mohd Zafiq Syaddiq B Mohd Radzi of Perak, settled for third with 2703. Abdul Basit (SSBP-2637), Yap Sai

Mun (KUL-2616), Farhan Afiz Abas (NSE-2614), Muhd Amirul (KED-2578) and Mohd Shafiq (KUL-2542) advance to the next round from fourth to eighth positions.

In the girl's graded division, Norsyazana Rosli of Perak, upstaged favourites to top the field and advance into the knockout finals with a total of 2574. Farah Ain Diyana Zahari of Negeri Sembilan, finished second, 20 pins adrift with 2554.

Nur Azlin Bt Abu Bakar of SSBP, Johor did well to take up third spot with 2541 a further 3 pins away folowed by Melaka's Sonia Teoh Jia Yun in fourth place with 2523. Pace-setters, Nur Shamira of KL and round 1 leader, Nursyafiqah Bt Ramli of Kedah only managed sixth and seventh places.

Nur Fadeena Bt Aznel of Kedah, took fifth spot ahead of the duo with 2519 as the final qualifying spot for the knockout finals went to Nur Shahira Bt Abdul Manaf of KL with 2460 and averaging 175.71.

The boy's open division was dominated by Perak youths as they took five out of the eighth slots for the knockout stage. Muhd Fazrin B Khairul Faizi snatched the lead in the final game to top the field with 2783.

Kevin Tan, who was leading before the final game, shot a poor 157 to end the block in second with 2743. Stage 1 leader, Teh Lit Qing recovered with a good final game to take up third spot on a total of 2723.

Top seed of the girl's open division went to SUKMA gold medalist, Farah Izzazaya Bt Mohd Fariq of Pahang, who amassed a 14-game total of 2646. Last leg runnerup and SUKMA Masters gold medalist, CHerly Cheong Pu Yee of KL finished second with 2558.

Onvernight leader, Siti Nazwa Br Mohd Sanap of Johor dropped to third with 2553 while the eighth and last spot advancing to the knockout stage went to Radin Nur Najwa of KL with 2407 and average of 171.93.

The top 8 from each of the four divisions will commence their knockout rounds tomorrow (Sunday) with the winners proceeding to the semi-finals and finals to determine the champion of this year's circuit last leg.

Photos by Ms Tay Li Neo, MTBC.

15th August, Melaka: Rookie, Khoo Kim Yoon of Melaka and Nursyafiqah Bt Ramli of Kedah took center stage as they led the opening round of the SportExcel-NSC-Milo-MTBC Junior Circuit Melaka leg in Friday.

Second leg champion, Mohd Zafiq Syaddiq B Mohd Radzi of Perak opened account with a 217 to take an early lead but lost it after a poor 173 in the second. But Mohd Zafiq recovered with 243 and 198 to regain the lead at the halfway point.

Newcomer, Khoo Kim Yoon, who was bowling in the junior circuit for the first time and trailing the leader by 40 pins, shot 247 to move to the front of the pack as Mohd Zafiq suffered two additional bad games.

The local youth went on to top the round with an 8-game total of 1643 and the only youth to average pass the 200-mark. Mohd Zafiq settled for second with 1563 with another local youth, Tan Siong Ling taking third spot with 1561.

Meanwhile, Kedah's SUKMA reserve, Nursyafiqah Bt Ramli hung on to lead the Girl's Graded division despite a poor 147 in her final game. The 13-year-old posted a total of 1479 to lead fellow Kedahan, Nur Fadeena Bt Aznel by 11 pins.

Pace-setter, Nur Shamira Bt Abdul Manaf and sister, Nur Shahira finished third and fourth positions with 1466 and 1460 respectively while Zati Iman Zainudin of Negeri Sembilan rounded up the top 5 with 1447.

The top 48 boys and top 28 girls advanced to the second round which will be played on Saturday afternoon. The boys and girls open youths will contest their round 1 in the morning.

Photos by Ms Tay Li Neo, MTBC.