14th March, Paris Adrian Ang and Zulmazran Zulkifli were denied victories but did Malaysia proud when they finished second and third in highly competitive field in the Brunswick Euro Challenge 2010 at Plaza Bowling Center on Sunday.

drian was indeed unlucky to settle for second spot despite bowling well in the one game final with 248 but went down to England's Rob Thurlby, who bowled 253, to win by a mere five pins and bag 13,000 Euro (RM59,000).

Penangite Adrian had to settle for 7,500 Euro (RM34,000), while Zulmazran who finished third brought home 4,700 Euro (RM21,364).

A total of 475 bowlers from 36 countries competed in the seventh edition of the championship which offered a total prize money of 90,000 Euro (RM409,098). Two of the top bowlers who competed included PBA's biggest superstars, Parker Bohn III and Carolyn Dorin-Ballard.

Adrian went to the final as the higher seed after having started the final stepladder rounds as 11th seed, where he had defeated none other than Bohn himself (245-268, 231-221 and 208-205), who was the 12th seed in the quarterfinals.

In the semifinals, the Malaysian defeated another top bowler, Finland's Kimmo Lehtonen seeded ninth in a best of three games (226-257, 221-197 and 199-196).

Zulmazran, on the other hand, who was seeded 19, went into the final rounds beating Venezuela's Idemaro Ruiz, 20th seed, in the quarterfinals 230-202 before going down to Rob Thurlby, seeded 15th in the semifinals 194-233.

Two other bowlers who made it to the final rounds before the stepladder finals include Aaron Kong and Wendy Chai, the only Malaysian women to make the cut. The other Malaysian bowlers who competed in this championship were Muhd Syafiq Ridhwan, Muhd Nur Aiman, Shalin Zulkifli, Zandra Aziela, Siti Safiyah Amirah and Sharon Koh.

All the Malaysian bowlers will be back today (Tuesday) and will be making their qualifying rounds in the 33rd Canon Malaysia International Open Bowling Championship. For detailed scores, please visit www.brunswickeurochallenge.com.

Photos by Cheah Ban Cheng in Paris.

10th March, Paris: Team Malaysia stole the limelight on Wednesday with impressive performances by all team members with three in the top 16 and nine in the top 52 of the Brunswick Euro Challenge 2010.

The youngest male bowler in the Malaysian Team, Adrian Ang fired up with lines of 248, 232, 236, 235, 259 and 269 for a total of 1479 over six games in Squad 9 to lead the squad of 42 players.

Aaron Kong and Zulmazran Zulkifli were equally impressive allowing Malaysia to dominate the Squad by taking up the top three positions with 1457 and 1437 respectively. Southpaw, Muhd Nur Aiman and Sharon Koh made sixth and seventhth in the squad with 1385 and 1383.

Syafiq Ridzuan and Wendy Chai took tenth with 1355 and 11th with 1353 respectively while Zandra Aziela finishing 13th with 1323, Siti Syafiyah 16th with 1304 and Shalin Zukifli 20th with 1205.

In the subsequent Squad 11, Shalin improved slightly with a 1328 as Wendy and Zandra also moved up their positions in the standings in Squad 12 on Thursday with 1420 and 1369 to secure their chances of advancing into the next round.

Overall position after Squad 14 saw three Malaysians in top 16 who would qualify directly to Final Step 2 out of 357 participants. They are Adrian Ang (6th), Aaron Kong (9th) and Zulmazran (13th).

The others who made the top 52, who would qualify to Final Step 1 were Wendy Chai (22nd), Nur Aiman (32nd), Syafiq Ridzuan (35th) and Zandra (49th). Shalin, who was inn 67th will surely be able to make further progress in later squads.

Final Step 1 will be held Sunday morning followed by Step 2 and subsequently, the Stepladder Grand Finals at 5.00pm local time. The Final will be live telecast over Euro-Sports 2 worldwide including Malaysia. For detailed scores, please visit www.brunswickeurochallenge.com.

Photos by Cheah Ban Cheng in Paris.

9th March, Paris: Team Malaysia arrived safely in Paris after a long 13.5 hours direct flight from KLIA in the chilly dawn of -3 degrees weather to make their debut at the Brunswick Euro Challenge 2010.

Upon arrival, the team took two 7-seater taxi to their hotel. A team meeting was conducted by team manager, Cheah Ban Cheng and the bowlers were briefed of their mission for this premier European event.

At 2.00pm, the team was shuttled to the bowling centre and the bowlers tried out the lanes with the championship oiling pattern. At 8.00pm, all the bowlers took to the lanes for the first attempt of the Brunswick Euro Challenge.

In the very first game, Malaysian bowlers made their presence felt when lanky Syafiq Ridhwan gave an inspiring opening game of 264 to take the lead. Syafiq continued with another high game of 269 in the second game.

Inspired by his performance, team-mates also produced equally impressive scores in the second game where Muhd Nur Aiman fired a sizzling 279, Zulmazran Zulkifli blasted with 278, Adrian Ang reeled off with 269.

Red hot youngster, Adrian Ang took over the lead after the first 3-game series, after reeling lines of 233, 269 and 279 for a 781 sub-total. The reigning Ankara Open champion then sustained his performance with scores of 240, 195 and 254 for 1470 total.

Hot on Adrian’s heel was the legendary PBA bowler, Parker Bohn III who finished second on this squad with 1451 total, 19 pins behind Adrian Ang. Reigning Malaysian Open champion, Zulmazran Zulkifli did well to finish third with 1411 total.

Muhd Nur Aiman also produced a commendable performance with lines of 204, 279, 225, 228, 247 and 204 for a 1387 total to position himself sixth in the squad.

A disastrous third game costed Syafiq Rihwan to slip down to seventh position and ended up with 1353 total. Aaron Kong finished his first attempt in ninth position with a score of 1341.

Malaysian women led by Shalin Zulkifli gave a fairly decent performance. With a handicap of 8 pins, Shalin was the top Malaysian women after chalking up 1349 total followed by Zandra Aziela with 1307, Sharon Koh 1258, Siti Safiyah 1199 and Wendy Chai 1193. For detailed scores, please visit www.brunswickeurochallenge.com.

Photos by Cheah Ban Cheng in Paris.