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By Emil C. Noguera Correspondent
THE Philippines won the men’s
trios gold medal in record fashion Wednesday in the 2008 Asian
Tenpin Bowling Championships in Hong Kong Bowling City lanes.
Chester King, Raoul Miranda and
Frederick Ong worked hand in hand to accumulate an impressive 4,193
pinfalls (638, 684, 674, 711, 780 and 706) which erased the former
Asian record of 3,932 registered by Japan in Indonesia six years
ago.
Malaysians Aaron Kong, Mohd Nur
Aiman and Adrian Ang amassed 3,917 (702, 680, 615, 633, 696 and 591)
to settle for silver while Singaporeans Eugene Low, Jason Yeong
Nathan and Shaun Ng rolled 3,898 (637, 601, 630, 689, 638 and 703)
to capture the bronze.
“We really didn’t expect to
come up with these huge numbers. I’m happy that we finally won a
gold for our country,” said Miranda who earlier bagged a bronze
medal in men’s singles event.
The Philippines now has a gold
and a bronze for third in medal standing behind South Korea with
five golds, four silvers and two bronzes and Malaysia with one gold
and three silvers.
Hong Kong is at fourth with one
gold followed by Qatar with one silver, Singapore with two bronzes
while China, Chinese Taipei and Japan has one bronze each.
“Chester is very happy with the
way he played today. He considers this day his most memorable moment
of his career. And we are happy to be there for him. I salute the
whole team because everything that happened today is a team effort.
A huge lead after the event showed Asian countries the true worth of
Filipino bowlers,” said RP head coach Nico Valderrama in an e-mail
sent to the Manila Times.
Because of King’s impressive
series, he leaped from No. 17 to first in the All Events standings
with 4,886 pinfalls. With just three games left in the second block
of the Team of 5 Event, he has to maintain his form to secure the
gold.
Miranda also remains in the medal
hunt as he sits in the second place with 4,759 while erstwhile
Mubarak Al-Suwaidi of Qatar fell to third with 4,711.
“Grabbing the top two positions
in the All Events will be a great achievement for the country. Given
a field of Asian bowlers with respectable careers and being former
Asian Champions and World Champions, our position in the All Events
can help us gauge where Philippine bowling is in the bowling map.
Everything that happens here is a great start for us to strive
harder for the World Men’s Championships. It’s going to be great
boost for the team to head to Bangkok with an impressive performance
here,” added Valderrama.
In women’s all-events, Krizzah
Tabora ranked No. 16 with 5,000 pinfalls. Koreans Jeon Eun Hee
(5,502), Choi Jin A (5,397) and Kim Yeau Jin (5,389) occupy the top
three positions.
The Top 16 players in the men’s
and women’s All Events will qualify in the Master Finals.
“We hope that our success in
the Asian Championships will be a testimony of public and private
sector coordination and encourage more corporate citizens to be
involved in regaining the glory of Philippine bowling,” Valderrama
concluded.
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