TRULY A WORLD CLASS CHAMPIONSHIP

Wednesday, 09 May 2012

 

PBA Bowlers from left Sean Rash, Ryan Ciminelli, Sara Rash, Dino Castillo, Parker Bohn III & Mika Koivuniemi

 

The foreign legion have all arrived and are battling to make their mark and live up to their reputation at the 35^th Canon Malaysian International Open Bowling Championship at the Sunway Pyramid Mega Lanes.

 

Among the PBA bowlers who have been involved in the Men’s Open qualifiers include the likes of PBA 2010-11 third ranked Mika Koivuniemi from Finland, sixth ranked Sean Rash from the US, 24th ranked Parker Bohn III, Ryan Ciminelli and Dino Castillo all from the US, while Sara Rash is the sole women bowler from the US.

 

Besides bowlers from the US and Finland, bowlers from 14 other countries besides Malaysia are competing. They include bowlers from Australia, Philippines, Brunei, China, Chinese Taipei Honduras, Hong Kong, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Qatar, Singapore, Thailand and United Arab Emirate.

Among the Asian bowlers here include Qatar’s Mubarak Almurikhi, Indonesia’s Ryan Lalisang, Thailand’s Yanaaphon Larpapharat, China’s Wang Zhyong, Singapore’s Remy Ong, Australia’s Sam Cooley, Hong Kong;s Wu Siu Hong and India’s Shabbir Dhankot while the women bowlers include Singapore’s Daphne Tan, Jazreel Tan, Shayna Ng, and New Hui Fen, Indonesia’s Tannya Roumimper and Putty Armein, Australia’s Rebecca Whiting and Jacinta Gilliland and Chinese Taipei’s Chien Hsiu Lan to name a few.

Sean heads the overseas pool of the Men’s Open qualifier with his score of 1510 (779 and 731) after the 5pm squad today overtaking from overnight leader Sam – 1482 (755 and 727).

Mubarak is third with his total of 1477 (747 and 727) while Mika is in fourth spot with his total of 1455 (766 and 689). Ryan who almost fired the second perfect game of the championship when he left a pin in the final frame for a 299 game is fifth with his total of 1450 (766 and 689).

National youth bowler, Syimir Abdul Razak continues to lead the local pool with his total of 1476 (769 and 707), while national bowler and 2010 champion, Adrian Ang is in second (1474 – 765 and 709), while Topgun Bowling and former national youth bowler, Kang Bo Long, has moved to third spot with his total of 1468 – 755 and 713. Timmy Tan from the MTBC Special squad, is fourth with his total of 1443 (758 and 685).

Positions fifth to 10^th are filled by national bowlers Isaac Russel Paul, Zulmazran Zulkifli, Aaron Kong, Syafiq Rahman and Alex Liew, while another MTBC Special member, Muhd Rafiq Ismail who won the ‘the Masters’ last year is in tenth spot and national bowler, Aris Ardila Santosoh is on eleventh spot.

In the Women’s Open qualifiers, national bowlers Siti Safiyah Amirah, Jacqualine Sijore and Esther Cheah are in the top three spots with their total scores of 1478, 1406 and 1386 respectively. Other national bowlers Sharon Koh, Hee Kar Yen, Wendy Chai, Syaidatul Afifah occupy the fourth to seventh spot. Victoria Chin from the MTBC Special squad is on ninth spot, while another national bowler Sin Li Jane is on tenth spot.

Jazreel Tan from Singapore

In the Overseas pool, Singapore’s Daphne and Jazreel are in the top two spots with their respective scores of 1394 and 1378, while Indonesia’s Tannya is third with her total of 1375.   Competition is indeed keen and with tomorrow (Thursday) being the final day for qualifying for the Masters, the battle has indeed been hot on the lanes to make the cut.   After the qualifying rounds tomorrow, the defending champion, fifth to 12 placed bowlers in the local pool (eight bowlers), 5th to 12th placed overseas bowlers (8 bowlers) , the top 13 qualifiers from the local and overseas bowlers and three bowlers from the “desperado squad” will make the 33 bowlers to make Men’s Masters round 1 on Friday to bowl eight games.

For the women’s category, only 27 bowlers qualify for the Round 1, where the defending champion, seven bowlers positioned from 4^th to 10^th from the local and overseas pool respectively together with the top 12 qualifiers from local and overseas pool will qualify.

The top four bowlers in both the men and women’s qualifiers (local and overseas pool), will gain automatic berths to the Masters 2 round on Saturday.

The top 25 from round 1 for the men, the 1^st to 4^th qualifiers (four bowlers) and 1^st to 4^th from the overseas pool (four bowlers) will make the 33 bowlers to bowl eight games in Round 2 on Saturday to qualify for the quarterfinals, semifinals and final stages.

For the women, the top 21 from round 1, 1^st to 3^rd local and 1^st to 3^rd foreign bowlers will make the 27 bowlers for Round 2.

The defending champions are Muhd Nur Aiman and Zandra Aziela Ibrahim Hakimi who made it an all Malaysian affair after the last time both Malaysians won the title in 2004 – Shalin Zulkilfi and Daniel Lim.

 

 

 

Reported by Tony Mariadass