International entries among 60 battle for top honours
KOTA KINABALU: Around 60 teams will battle it out for top honours in the four-day Sabah Open Triples lawn bowls tournament starting tomorrow at the Kota Kinabalu Sports Complex Lawn Bowls Green in Likas near here.
The tournament, formerly known as the Kinabalu Borneo Open Triples, has also attracted international entries.
Tournament director Shuib Hashim yesterday said the foreign participants were from Hong Kong with six teams, Brunei (five teams), Thailand (three teams) and Fiji (one team).
“Majority of the teams are from Sabah, Peninsular Malaysia and FT Labuan.
“As of today (yesterday), 58 teams have confirmed their entries...the target is 60 teams,” he was quoted as saying in an interview via Whatsapp.
Players from the Philippines will be the notable absentees from the three-bowler per team competition, which means new team champions will be crowned in the tournament this year.
An all-women Team Phillipines A comprising Hazel Jaganoy, Vilma Ronalyn Greenlees and Rosita Bradborn tamed their all-male opponents Labuan X consisting of Michael Sim Siang Wei, Mohd Syafiq Omar and Zainudin Che Mat 13-11 final win last year.
“Due to unforeseen circumstances, defending champions Philippines (A) could not make it this time around,” confirmed Shuib, who is also Sabah Lawn Bowls Association deputy president.
Meanwhile, today’s programmes will see the participants having their practice rounds at the tournament venue while the managers meeting will be held at 3pm.
The opening ceremony will followed where Youth and Sports Minister Frankie Poon is expected to grace at 6pm.
The matches will be played from Thursday (July 5) right up to Sunday (July 8) starting 8am.
Also on Sunday the finals for Cup and Plate categories are expected to start roll-off at 1:15pm and followed by the prize presentation-cumclosing by the association president Datuk Ladislaus Maluda.