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FILIPINOS Chester King, Frederick Ong and Raoul Miranda scored a
series of 1996 in the first block of the Men’s Trios event to stay
at second in the 20th Asian Tenpin Bowling Championship Monday at
the Hong Kong Bowling City lanes.
King, the 2002 Asian Championships doubles gold
medalist, rolled 688 while 2008 Asian Championships singles bronze
medalist Raoul Miranda and 2000 Asian Youth Championships doubles
gold medalist Frederick Ong scored 699 and 609, respectively, to
keep their gold medal campaign alive.
Malaysia took the lead after Aaron Kong, Muhd
Nur Aiman and Adrian Ang tallied 1997 while men’s doubles gold
medalist Eric Tseng, Cyrus Cheung and Wu Siu Hong of Hong Kong
scored 1980 for third followed by Egypt with 1970 and Singapore with
1868.
“It could have been a first place finish if
not for the split we’ve got in the last frame. But we can’t ask
for anything more than this because it’s important that we are
almost at the top before the second squad. We have yet to bowl on
the short pattern which is the strongest pattern of Chester,
Frederick and Raoul. So I expect the trios team to bowl better than
their already impressive first squad score,” said national coach
Nico Valderrama.
The other RP trios team of Benshir Layoso,
Tyrone Ongpauco and Vlad Tuazon placed 26th among 35 squads and 289
pins away from the leader.
Meanwhile, Miranda topped the All Events
standings after 15 games played in the singles, doubles and the
first block of the trios event. Qatar’s Mubarak Al-Muraikhi was
second with 3419.
“We intend to widen the gap in the All Event
and secure a gold medal as Raoul is left with nine games to play
[six from short pattern and three from long pattern]. Most bowlers
struggle to score high in long pattern while Raoul can manage a
decent average to still pull away. Our games during the doubles
event [long squad] served as a learning phase for us so we can
solidify our games in the upcoming events. Unless the opponents
succeed in resolving how to play the long pattern, Raoul can win
another medal for the country, and this time, it’s going to be a
gold,” explained Valderrama.
In the ladies division, the trios team of
Krizziah Tabora, Alexis Sy and Liza del Rosario is in eighth place,
171 pins behind leader Korea (1963).
“Alexis struggled in the first block because
of the long pattern but we will be hopeful in the second block since
we are now going to play the short pattern,” said Valderrama.
The ladies trios will play the second block
Tuesday afternoon.
In the Team of 5 event, the Philippines is at
fourth, 255 pins behind Korea after the first block of three games
in the short pattern. The second block will be played Wednesday
morning.
“It’s going to be a challenge for the ladies
team to catch up but given the long pattern, it would be anybody’s
game. The best thing the team can do is to be more patient in making
spares and for the coaches to solve the lane to make more strikes.
The lead can be narrowed in each game by just bowling decent
games,” Valderrama added.
-- Noli S. Cruz
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