6th May, Kuantan: Muhammad Fazrin B Khairul Faizi and Muhammad Haziq B Sahlil took their maiden victory when the Perak and Johor youth triumphed in the Boy's Open and Boy's Under-16 division of the SportExcel-NSC-Milo-MTBC Junior Circuit Pahang leg.

Top-seed and Perak's Sukan Teras youth, Muhammad Fazrin defeated challenger and third-seed, Mohammad Amin of Kuala Lumpur, 214-183 in the final stepladder match to take his maiden victory in top flight. The 15-year-old had earlier won 6 of the 8-game round-robin semifinals on a total of 4722 pinfalls with scores carried froward from the 8-game Round 1 and 6-game quarterfinals.

Mohammad Amin, who finished third in the semifinals with 4649, knocked out second-seed, Muhammad Saman Mohd Shuib of Pahang and last leg champion, Fahmi Bahri of Johor, 216-193-170 in the first stepllader match before going down to the champion in the decider.

Muhammad Saman, who totalled 4567, settled for third while Fahmi Bahri who finished fourth with 4539 remained in fourth position. Jonathan Chan of Pahang, Noor Afizal Azizan of Negeri Sembilan, Khoo Beng Khai of Penang and Patrick Nea of Johor were the other semifinalists finishing fifth to eighth positions respectively.

Mohammad Haziq B Sahlil of Johor also claimed his maiden victory when he defeated challenger, Chan Wei Siang 212-142 in the final match. Mohammad Haziq was forced into the sudden-death decider after loosing the first game, 143-166.

Chan, who finished second in the earlier round-robin semifinals, ousted third-seed Birhakim Rozaimee of Kuala Lumpur and fourth-seed, Ros Qusyairi Ros Sahar of Negeri Sembilan, 207-172-159 to set up his match with the eventual champion.

Sin Chern Yew of Perak, Nazmi Ziyad Bin Nasir of SSBP, Johor, Mohd Afnan Syafiq of Pahang and Mohd Zafiz Zulkifli of Negeri Sembilan who were the other four semifinalists, made up fifth to eighth positions.

National youth, Tengku Emanina Bte Tg Zahri of Kedah upset the favourites by capturing the Girl's Open title. Tengku Emanina had finished fourth to make stepladder finals but defeated second-seed, Syaidatul Afifah of Perak and third-seed, Diyana Zuhaili of Penang, 182-179-165 in the first match before taking on the top-seed.

The champion narrowly beat Nazrinnah Mohd Kamil, 178-173 in the first match and 178-169 in the decider for a well-deserved victory. Nazrinnah, who topped the semifinals with 4540, settled for second while Syaidatul and Diyana dropped to third and fourth.

Maisarah Bte Rozali of Penang prevented two-time winner, Hee Kar Yen of Pyramid Youth from winning her third consecutive title when she beat Hee in two games, 205,197 to 168,191. Maisarah earned a crack at the title after knocking out third-seed, Nazira Nasir of Pahang and Leisha Abdul Manan of Kuala Lumpur, 202-179-163 in the first match.

The fourth leg will be held from 25th - 27th May, 2007 at Ampang Superbowl Ipoh Parade in Perak.

Photos by Ray Tan, Kuantan Mega Lanes.