Sarawak’s bowling trio on fire in Hong Kong
KUCHING: Christopher Tiong Lee Siong, Mohd Uzair Irsyad Noor Azrul and Abner Loo Chun Lik from the Sukma shadow team had an excellent outing at the recent 43rd Hong Kong International Open tenpin Bowling Championships held at SCAA Bowling Centre, Hong Kong from July 9-15.
Guided by state head coach Jackson Ting who also doubled as the team manager, the state elite junior bowlers who represented Malaysia grabbed three gold and one silver competing against the best youth keglers from Hong Kong, Thailand, Indonesia, Kuwait, Taiwan and Saudi Arabia.
Christopher, 20, was the toast of the team as he captured three gold medals. After qualifying for the Youth Boys Open singles in second spot with 602 pins over three games, he went on to snatch the title with 681 pins also over three games, finishing ahead of Hong Kong’s Nicolas Michel Breant (626) and Chan Yuet Hei (601).
The Swinburne University student also partnered 20-year old Uzair to bag the Youth Boys doubles gold after they felled 780 pins, beating runners-up Ivan Tse and Oscar Poon of Hong Kong by only one pin while Taiwan’s pair of Xu Zhe Jia and Liao Wei Zheng were third on 761 pins.
Christopher got his third gold from the Youth Boys All Events with his total of 1,027 pins.
Uzair, who finished in eighth place in the Youth Boys singles qualifying, took the Youth Boys high game award with his score of 248 pins.
Meanwhile, it was a story of so near and yet so far for Abner Loo in the Youth U18 Masters finals.
The 17-year old lad from Sibu, who advanced to the finals after finishing in third spot in the qualifying with 1,220 pins, lost to the champion Wong Son Ian from Macau China by a mere one pin after registering 1,172 pins, averaging 195 pins per game. In third place with 1,169 pins was Lin Yin Tong from Taiwan.
Jackson was happy not only with the excellent results but also that the three bowlers gained invaluable experience and confidence from the international tournament.
The outing was part of the state bowling team’s preparations for Sukma XIX in Perak next year.