2nd February, Kuwait: Malaysia's Aris Ardilla Santosoh failed to assert himself in the second block of eight games and settled for sixth place in the Masters event of the 15th Asian Youth Tenpin Bowling Championships in Kuwait on Tuesday.

The 18-year-old Aris was in fourth place with an overnight score of 1945 but he could only managed a 1705 in the second block with six wins on Tuesday for a 3650 and failed to make the top-three stepladder Finals.

Michael Mak of Hong Kong went into the stepladder Finals as top seed on 3929 ahead of South Korean Shin Seung Hyeon (3,910) and team-mate Eric Tseng (3,709). Michael emerged as the champion, edging Tseng 434-429 (224-227, 210-202) in the all-Hong Kong final. Tseng had earlier defeated Shin 268-189 in the first match.

The other Malaysians in the 16-bowler boys' competition were Johnathan Chan in 10th place on 3467 and Syimir Abdul Razak in 15th place on 3277.

In the girls' competition, South Korea dominated with a 1-2-3 finish with Kim Hyun Mi, Baek Seung Ja and Lee Yeon Ji taking up all the top three stepladder finals spots with 3941, 3873 and 3718 respectively.

Hyun Mi defeated Seung Ja 494-428 (279-223, 215-205) to take the gold medal. Seung Ja made the final with a 236-216 victory over Yeon Ji to win the silver and the latter, the bronze medal.

Malaysia's best performer was Hurul Ainul Abdul Razak in seventh place with a total of 3588. Jacqueline Jenelee Sijore took 13th place on 3481 while Hee Kar Yen slipped two rungs to 15th spot with a total of 3387.

Malaysia went home with one gold and two bronze medals. The boy's won the Team of Four gold medal on Sunday while the two bronze came

Hurul Ainul and Jacqueline Sijore in the Girl's Doubles and Aris Ardila and Khoo Beng Khai in the boy's division. Detailed scores: Boy's Masters Block 2 and Girl's Masters Block 2.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Kuwait.

1st February, Kuwait: Team gold medalist, Aris Ardila Santosoh and Doubles bronze medalist, Hurul Ainul were still in title contention after finishing fourth and sixth place in the Boy's and Girl's first block Masters finals on Monday.

Aris Ardila had an appauling start in his opening game of the first block Round-Robin Masters finals with 172 but Aris bounced back to win his second match with 247 as Singapore's Benjamin Lim set the early pace.

The limelight was clearly stolen by two gold medalist and All Events champion, Michael Mak of Hong Kong when he grabbed the lead from third match onwards firing a string of high games to lead team-mate, Eric Tseng by a comfortable 66 pins at midpoint.

The 15-year-old wonder kid continued his hot pace with 277, 258, 278 and 276 to end the block with 2178, winning all the eighth matches contested and 136 pins ahead of his nearest rival.

Singles gold medalist, Shin Seung Hyeon of Korea, tried to keep pace with Mak winning seven matches in the process but had to content with second spot on a total of 2042. Another Korean Hong Hae Sol claimed third spot with 1991.

Aris rolled 215, 279, 233 and 274 in his second half but managed only four wins to finish a creditable fourth with 1945 and 46 pins behind Hong.

"I was struggling to find my rythmn in the first game but luckily from the second match, I was back to my usual pace," said the regining national youth champion, Aris from Sarawak. "Hopefully I can have a better start tomorrow and try to reduce the gap and make the top 3.

Aris' team-mates, Johnathan Chan and All Events bronze medalist, Syimir Abdul Razak found the going tough ending the first block in 15th and 16th positions with 1628 and 1618 respectively.

Meanwhile, Malaysia girls faired worst with the best performance coming from 16-year-old Doubles bronze medalist, Hurul Ainul winning six matches and chalking up a total of 1835. Hee Kar Yen, who lead the first two games suffered two low games to slip down to 13th with 1741.

Jacqueline Sijore amassed 1737 to take up 14th position as the Koreans welcomed their return to form. Kim Hyun Mi finished in the lead with 2079 followed by Lee Yeon Ji in second in second spot with 1967.

Two silver medalist, Misaki Mukotani, who was trading the lead with Kim, shot a poor 158 in her last match to hand the lead to the Korean with 1898. The third Korean, Kim Yeon Ju took fourth spot with 1892.

Team and doubles gold medalist, New Hui Fen and Hurul rounded up the top 6 with 1857 and 1835 respectively. Hurul is 57 pins behind third placed, Lee and will have to step up in the second block to see any chance of making the top 3 stepladder finals tmorrow.

The boys will resume with their second block in the afternoon after the girls complete theirs in the morning. The top 3 girls and top 3 boys will advance to the stepladder finals for the last two gold medals. Detailed scores: Boy's Masters Block 1 and Girl's Masters Block 1.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Kuwait.

31st January, Kuwait: First block leader, Malaysia survived an onslaught from their opponents in the second block to strike their first gold medal in the Boy's Team event at the 15th Asian Youth Tenpin Bowling Championship on Sunday evening.

After seeing their counterpart unable to win a medal in the Girl's Team event missing the podium in fourth, the Malaysian boys were under hugh pressure to deliver a medal especially after topping the first block yesterday.

Aris Ardilla, Khoo Beng Khai, Johnathan Chan and anchorman, Syimir Abdul Razak underlined Malaysia's speciality in the team event with a superb 915 in the opening game to remain in front despite Hong Kong chalking up an even higher 992 to take up second, 30 pins adrift.

Hong Kong increased their pressure on the leader with another sizzling 971 to take over the lead as the Malaysian quartet downed a creditable 890 to stay in contention and trailed by 51 pins leaving Korea, Singapore and host nation Kuwait fitting over the minor places.

With so much at stake, it was pretty apparent the Hong Kong's Michael Mak, Rickle Kam, Michael Tsang and Eric Tseng felt the pressure mounting as the Malaysians went on a strikefest in the final game.

Next to them was Kuwait, who had the local Kuwaiti crowd almost bringing down the roof with their cheering. Hong Kong managed only 790 while Malaysia ended the block with 896 to seal the victory with 5314.

Hong Kong settled for the silver medal with 5259 while Kuwait shot the highest one-game score of 978 to snatch the bronze medal with 5211. Korea and overnight second-placed Singapore fell by the wayside to finish fourth and fifth with 5189 and 5097.

Michael Mak shot the highest 3-games series of 764 in the second block to win the Boy's All-Events gold medal with 4245 and team-mate, Eric Tseng posted the second highest series of 752 to win the All-Events silver medal with 4160.

Syimir Abdul Razak of Malaysia chalked up 748 to snatch the bronze medal with 4137 from Singles Gold medalist, Shin Seung Hyeon of Korea, who ended up in fourth.

"I missed out in the Singles in the short oil pattern which I'm strong in and today I bowled well to help my team win the gold," said the youngest member of the team and anchorman, Syimir, who shot the highest 6-game score of 1444 in the team event.

"So I'm thrilled to win the gold medal in my first major outing for my country. But this is not just my effort alone. The whole team was bowling well."

"I had a bad game in the fifth but I was so lucky to have Johnathan and Syimir covering us with their high game," said Aris Ardilla, who won the Doubles bronze medal with Khoo Beng Khai two days ago.

"We sent a relatively young team here to bowl against some of the best youths in Asia and they really justify our selection committee's decision," said MTBC high performance manager, Cheah Ban Cheng. "They also demonstrated that they can witstand the tremendous pressure placed on them.

Syimir will be joined by Aris Ardilla and Johnathan Chan in the Masters finals after finishing 11th and 13th positions in the All-Events standings. Khoo Beng Khai missed the cut by 27 pins to finish 17th spot.

Earlier in the day, Malaysian girls stepped up their performance in the second block over their dismal showing a day before in which a poor third game put them down to fourth position. Their late charge of 906 in their final game failed to land them a place on the podium.

Hee Kar Yen, Siti Shazwani, Hurul Ainul and Jacqueline Sijore had only managed 841 and 851 in the fourth and fifth games thus ending their chances of a medal. They only finished fourth with 5085.

Singapore's Bernice Lim, Gina Lim, Krishna Darshini and New Hui Fen defied all odds to win the gold medal with a new record of 5150 team total. Singapore was 313 pins behind leader Japan before firing 960, 985 and 832 to snatch the victory by 8 pins.

Japan, who was leading Korea by 7 pins before the final game, settled for the silver medal with 5142 after a poor 778. Korea suffered the same blow with a poor effort of 746 in the last game to take home the bronze with 5117.

Bernice Lim shot the highest 3-games series of 782 and the highest 6-games total of 1377 in the team event to win her third gold medal by topping the All-Events standings with 4242. Misaki Mukotani of Japan took the silver and Baek Seung Ja of Korea the bronze with 4153 and 4152 respectively.

Hee Kar Yen, Jacqueline and Hurul Ainul made the cut for the Masters after finishing fourth, seventh and 12th in the All-Events table. Siti Shazwani, who tied with Singapore's Krishna Darshini in 16th, lost the one-game tie breaker to miss out joining her team-mates in the finals. Detailed scores: Boy's Team Block 2 and Girl's Team Block 2.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Kuwait.

30th January, Kuwait: Malaysia put in a strong performance in their favourite event after topping the first block of the Boy's Team of Four in the 15th Asian Youth Tenpin Bowling Championship on Saturday evening.

Doubles bronze medalist, Aris Ardilla and Khoo Beng Khai united with Johnathan Chan and Syimir Abdul Razak to take the lead after rolling a superb 896 in their opening game of the Team of Four first block.

Hong Kong and Singapore tied second spot 49 pins behind Malaysia after the two teams downed 847 a piece. But Malaysia's lead was reduced to just 11 pins after Japan fired a sizzling 916 in thir second game as Malaysia put in a consistent 857.

But Malaysia prevailed ending the block in the lead with another strong final game of 860 and a team total of 2613. Aris downed 699, Khoo 601, Chan 617 and Syimir 696. Singapore's Basil Low, Benjamin Lim, Christopher Hwang and perfect gamer, Justin Lim shot a strong 913 to snatch second spot with 2551.

Japan slipped down to thrid with 2550 ahead of favourite, Korea fourth with 2531. Hong Kong took fifth spot with 2506 followed by host nation, Kuwait in sixth position with 2478.

"It's not easy beng an anchorman as there are a lot of pressure but my team-mates urged me on," said the youngest team member, Syimir Abdul Razak, who is 17 while the others are all 18.

"We're very happy with our performance today. The team event is very exciting and all of us are all determined to take home more medals," said Aris Ardilla, who won the Doubles bronze medal with Khoo Beng Khai yesterday.

Meanwhile, the boy's counterpart of Hurul Ainul, Siti Shazwani, Hee Kar Yen and Jacqueline Jenelee Sijore were at one stage in second position after two superb games of 866 and 861, behind pace-setter Japan.

Rina Asada, Yuri Sato, Mika Yamada and perfect gamer, Misaki Mukotani felled 895, 890 and 901 to end the first block with 2686 and in the lead. Arch rivals and favourite, Korea finished second with 2557, 129 pins adrift.

Australia stormed home to snatch third spot with 2489 while Malaysia, who shot a poor 760 in their last game, slipped down to fourth with 2487. Singapore rounded up the top 5 with 2373.

"The team started well but slackened in their third game," said high performance manager, Cheah Ban Cheng. "If the girls wish to take home a medal, they will have to step up their performance in the second block.

Malaysia has all four girls in the top 16 of the All-Events standings after 15 games. Hee Kar Yen is fourth with 3352, Hurul Ainul eighth with 3222, Jacqueline 12th and Siti Shazwani 16th. Misaki Mukotani of Japan topped the table with 3490

The three boys in the Boy's top 16 are Syimir in seventh with 3389, Aris eighth with 3318 and Khoo 16th with 3171. Johnathan is 23rd with 3105 as Shin Seung Hyeon of Korea topped the table with 3484.

The girls will resume with their second block on Sunday morning followed by the boys in the afternoon. The top 16 girls and top 16 boys in the All Events standings will qualify for the Masters finals on January 1 and 2. Detailed scores: Boy's Team Block 1 and Girl's Team Block 1.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Kuwait.

29th January, Kuwait: Khoo Beng Khai and Aris Ardilla secured another bronze medal for Malaysia after the pair finished third in the Boy's Doubles event of the 15th Asian Youth Tenpin Bowling Championship on Friday.

Khoo Beng Khai and Aris Ardilla had a dream start in the first squad of the Boy's Doubles event in which the duo posted a scintillating 492 opening game to lead arch rival, Korea by 40 pins.

Khoo and Aris continued their hot pace with 461, 425 and another 492 to build up a lead of 85 pins over Hong Kong's Rickle Kam and Michael Tsang as Korea slipped down to third. But a poor 158 from Khoo in the fifth and Aris unable to cover his partner with 213 still kept their lead, albeit only 24 pins fro a recovering Korea.

Park Jong Woo and Hong Hae Sol ended the squad with a strong 476 to pip Malaysia for the lead with 2693 as Malaysia settled for second with 2639 and hopes of a medal looked slim with the second squad to play.

Malaysia's second pair of Johnathan Chan and Syimir Abdul Razak had an equally great start in the second squad after the pair chalked up 479 to lead the second Hong Kong pair of Michael Mak and Eric Tseng by 9 pins in the opening game.

Another strong second game of 459 allowed the Malaysian pair to stretch their lead to 52 pins over Hong Kong but handed the lead to Mak and Tseng after managing only 382 in the third game.

Chan and Syimir never recovered from then on and continued to slide down the field as Hong Kong surged ahead. By the fifth game, Hong Kong had built up a cofortable 130 pins lead over local challenger, Kuwait making their bid in second.

Needing only 389 pins to overhaul Squad A leader, Korea and 335 over the first pair of Khoo and Aris in their last game to take the gold, Mak and Tseng fired a strong 479 to clinch their first gold medal with 2783.

Park and Hong settled for the silver with 2693 while Malaysia salvaged a bronze medal with 2639. Kuwait's Khaled Al-Dubyyan and Rakan Al-Amiri, who finished second to Hong Kong in the second squad, missed the podium by 24 pins to finish fourth.

"I had only myself to blame and letting my team-mate down when I bowled my worst game in the sixth," said the reigning national youth champion, Aris Ardilla from Sarawak. "But I'm glad that we can still win the bronze medal."

"I completely lost the line and my focus in the fifth game but fortunately my coach helped me out I could end with a strong sixth game," commented the 18-year-old Khoo beng Khai from Penang. "I'll learn from this experience which will help me to overcome this in furture."

The other Malaysia pair of Chan and Syimir dropped to tenth with 2497. Justin Lim of Singapore shot the tournament's fourth perfect game in his last game to finish sixth with his partner, Basil Low. Detailed scores: Boy's Doubles.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Kuwait.

28th January, Kuwait: Siti Shazwani and Hurul Ainul delivered Malaysia's frist medal of the 15th Asian Youth Tenpin Bowling Championship when the pair finished third in the Girl's Doubles event on Thursday.

Singapore's Bernice Lim and New Hui Fen set a blistering pace in their opening game with 510 where Lim shot 244 and Hui Fen 266 to lead Korea's second pair of Kim Hyun Mi and Kim Yeon Ju by 65 pins.

Siti Shazwani downed only 192 but was helped by her partner, Hurul Ainul's stronger 237 to allow the pair to take up fourth. The first Malaysian pair of Hee Kar Yen and Jacqueline Jenelee Sijore got off to a poor start managing only 355.

As the Singapore pair of Lim and Hui Fen continued their hot pace with a record-breaking 555 second the second game, Siti and Hurul rolled 408 to remain in fourth and the Koreans falling behind the leader some 200 pins behind.

Another superb 527 in the third game from Lim and Hui Fen saw the pair stretched their lead to 290 pins as Siti and Hurul shot a higher 465 in their third game to take up second spot as Korea slipped down to third.

The Singaporeans went on to cruise to a confortable victory to win their third gols medal with a total of 2889, Malaysia and Korea were keenly battling for the silver while Kar Yen and Jacqueline made up grounds.

Despite posting 403 in their last game, the Malaysian pair settled for the bronze medal with 2587 after Korea finished stronger to snatch the silver medal with 2590.

"We were doing quite well in the first four games but maybe we lost our focus a bit and didn't bowl too well," said Siti Shazwani. "But we're happy to have won the bronze medal especially with so many good bowlers here."

"We're very proud to have won the first medal for Malaysia and we hope that we can step up our game in our next event to take home more medals," said the national youth first runner-up, Hurul Ainul.

Singapore's second game of 555 erased the record of 485 set by Australia in 2007. They also set a new three-game series record of 1592 breaking the record of 1304 recorded by Malaysia in 1999.

Malaysia's other pair of Kar Yen and Jacqueline late charge only yielded them a fifth place finish on 2535 behind Singles silver and bronze medalist, Misaki Mukotani and Rina Asada of Japan in fourth.

Khoo Beng Khai will partner reigning national youth champion, Aris Ardilla for their Doubles Squad A tomorrow morning while Johnathan Chan will pair up with Syimir Abdul Razak in the second squad. Detailed scores: Girl's Doubles.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Kuwait.

27th January, Kuwait: Malaysia missed the podium by a whisker after Syimir Abdul Razak's late charge came a little too late finishing fifth in the Boy's Singles of the 15th Asian Youth Tenpin Bowling Championship on Wednesday.

Asian Youth Games gold medalist, Michael Mak had set the benchmark of 1418 after the 17-year-old topped Squad A of the Boy's Singles event in the morning ahead of East Asian Games Masters gold medalist, Hong Hae Sol and team-mate, Eric Tseng in third.

As the second squad got underway, another Hong Kong youth and Singapore Open Youth Champion, Rickle Kam set the pace after he downed 250 and 268 in his two opening games followed by Korea's Shin Seung Hyeon in second 11 pins adrift.

Malaysia's Syimir Abdul Razak impressed too with 234 and 246 to stay in contention in the top five. A poor 188 folowing 226 in Syimir's next two games saw the Malaysian slipping down the field as Shin took over the running.

The Korean fired 286 in the fifth to retain the lead despite the limelight being stolen by Macau's Lee Tak Man after he fired the championship's second perfect 300 in the fifth game. Syimir bounced back with a stronger 238.

Malaysia's hope of any medal felled heavilly on Syimir needing 290 or more and he came extremely close to achieving it when he struck home to down 280 in his last game to finish third in the squad.

Shin ended on a total of 1483 to capture Korea's second gold medal while Lee Tak Man took the silver with 1446. Squad A leader hung on to take home the bronze medal from his 1418 scoreline posted earlier.

Hong Hae Sol slipped down to fourth with 1416 while Syimir's effort of 1412 yielded only a fifth place finish. Khoo Beng Khai, who was eighth in the first squad with 1310, dropped to 18th position.

"After the fifth game, I knew I had to bowl at least 290 to stand any chance of winning a medal," said the national youth, Syimir Abdul Razak. "This meant I can either score a perfect game or start the last game with a spare in the first frame and strike home.

"But I'm not disappointed. Fifth is not too bad and we have two more events to bowl so there is still chance. But most important is even if we don't win any medals, our priority is to make the Masters finals.

Johnathan Chan and Aris Ardilla Santosh ended their first event in 23rd and 27th positions with 1272 and 1240 respectively. The girls will resume with their doubles tomorrow morning. Hee Kar Yen will partner Jacqueline Jenelee Sijore. The second pair will be Hurul Ainul and Siti Shazwani.

The boys will contest their doubles on Friday divided into two squads. Syimir will partner Johnathan Chan in the second squad while Arisa Ardilla will pair up with Khoo Beng Khai in the first squad. Detailed scores: Boy's Singles.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Kuwait.

26th January, Kuwait: Malaysian youths got off to a poor start at the 15th Asian Youth Tenpin Bowling Championship drawing blanks in the Girl's Singles event as Baek Seung Ja underlined Korea's supremacy to win the gold.

Reigning national youth girl champion, Hee Kar Yen had the best start in her opening game with 235 to take up fourth behind leader, Baek Seung Ja, who almost shot the championship's first perfect game with 299.

Rina Asada of Japan, then stole the limelight as she fired the perfect 300 in the second game to trail Baek by 16 pins while Kar Yen posted 216 to remain fourth and staying in contention. A scintilating 266 from the Malaysian moved her to third at the halfway mark.

But disaster struck the 18-year-old after she only managed 176 to slip down the field as Baek shot 279 and Asada 269 and another Japanese, Misaki Mukotani zoomed in on to the leaders with 269.

The Korean went on to end the event with another 279 and 221 to win Korea's first gold medal with 1552 as Misaki powered her way with 278 and 267 to snatch the silver with 1489. Asada settled for the bronze with 1469.

Kar Yen recovered with 219 and 224 but ended up in tenth with 1336. Jacqueline Jenelee Sijore finished stronger to take up eighth with 1355 while Hurul Ainul and Siti Shazwani took up 12th and 18th with 1284 and 1233 respectively.

Three new records were set. Baek Seung Ja erased the 6-games record of 1387 set by Shalin Zulkifli in 1996 while Misaki Mukotani broke the the 3-games record of 734 set by Taiwan's Chen Kuan Ting in 2007 with a second series of 814.

Rina Asada broke China's Wu Suqin high game of 269 with her 300 in the second game. Johnathan Chan and Khoo Beng Khai will contest their singles tomorrow morning in Squad A while Aris Ardilla and Syimir Abdul Razak are paired in Squad B in the afternoon. Detailed scores: Girl's Singles.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Kuwait.

23rd January, Kuwait: Malaysia is fielding a relatively young team to face the might of Korea, Japan and host Kuwait in the 15th Asian Youth Tenpin Bowling Championship which will kick off on Tuesday at Cozmo Bowl in Salmiya City.

Newly-crowned national youth boys champion, Aris Ardilla will lead Johnathan Chan, Khoo Beng Khai and Syimir Abdul Razak to face the mighty Koreans, Japanese and the Kuwaitis in the boy's division.

Another newly-crowned national youth girls champion, Hee Kar Yen will lead Hurul Ainul, Jacqueline Jenelee Sijore and Siti Shazwani to challenge other girls from seven countries for medals in the girl's division.

MTBC High Performance Manager, Cheah Ban Cheng will manage the team assisted by coaches, Foong Tak Meng and Jackson Ting. The team is also assisted by an ISN psychologist.

The team arrived Kuwait on January 22nd after a 7 hour flight which departed in the early hours (3.15am) from KLIA and was transported straight to the official hotel, Holiday Inn. After a day's rest, the team had their unofficial practice in the morning of January 23.

Boys from 15 countries and girls from 8 countries has gathered in Kuwait city for the start of the 15th Asian Youth Tenpin Bowling Championship which will kick off with the official practice tomorrow.

Competition starts proper with the Girl's Singles on Tuesday, January 26 followed by the Boy's Singles divided into two squads on Wednesday, January 27. The Doubles will be staged over two days on January 28 and 29.

The Team of Four, divided into two blocks will be held on January 30 and 31. The top 16 boys and top 16 girls based on the All-Events standings (over 3 events, 18 games) will qualify for the Masters finals.

The Masters finals will be contested over two blocks of 8 games each on February 1 and 2. The top 3 boys and top 3 girls will advance into the stepladder finals. A total of 10 gold medals will be handed out to the winners.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Kuwait.