Women’s tenpin bowling team eye gold at 2018 Asian Games

SEPANG: Fresh from winning the women’s team gold medal at the World Bowling Championships, the Malaysian tenpin bowling squad is optimistic of achieving the same success at the Asian Games in Indonesia next year.

Experienced elite player Shalin Zulkifli said the win at the World Bowling Championships in Las Vegas, United States last week, has lifted the players who are fired up for a more consistent display.

“Our next target is the Asian Games. After beating Singapore recently (at World Championships), we are confident of a good display at the 2018 Asian Games.

“This year, we really pushed ourselves to achieve good results especially at the Kuala Lumpur SEA Games. The hard work did not stop there and we continued to train for the World Championships.

“Alhamdullilah, the gold medal target is met,” she told reporters after arriving at KL International Airport ( KLIA) with the tenpin bowling squad yesterday.

Shalin, who led the Malaysian team comprising Siti Safiyah Abdul Rahman, Sin Li Jane, Syaidatul Afifah Badrul Hamidi and Natasha Roslan, won the gold medal in the women’s team event.

Three silver medals were won by Shalin and Li Jane (women’s doubles), Li Jane ( women’s masters) and Siti Safiyah (women’s all events).

The gold medal was the third for Malaysia after the World Championships in Monterrey, Mexico in 2007 and the World Championships in Kuala Lumpur in 2003.

Meanwhile, Shalin said she was very happy with the team’s achievement this year when they did well in two major tournaments, the Kuala Lumpur SEA Games and the World Championships.

The tenpin bowling squad will compete in the Professional Bowling Championship in South Korea next week which will bring the curtains down on the bowling calendar for 2017. — Bernama