Our women bowlers play second fiddle to Singapore

MALAYSIAN bowlers Sin Li Jane and Shalin Zulkifli left it late before turning on the style.

Unfortunately, it t wasn’t good enough for the gold.

Singapore’ s Cherie Tan proved to be in a class of h her own as she bowled c consistently from start to end to nick the gold by firing lines of 241-245-248-208-256-215 for a 1,413 total at the Sunway Mega Lanes yesterday.

Li Jane was not in the picture until the fourth game, but once she found her touch there was no stopping 25-year-old as she fired lines of 224-193-225-233-209-216 to take the silver with a 1,300 total.

Shalin saved her best for the final game to leapfrog from 12th spot to third with a 1,297 total (163-209-211223-225-266).

This is the second time that Li Jane has found herself playing sec- ond fiddle to Cherie. At the 2011 Jakarta Games in Palembang, Li Jane lost the gold to the Singaporean by just two pins.

But Li Jane is not too disappointed this time.

“I didn’t get off to a good start. Luckily, Shalin and I (bowling side by side) kept encouraging one another and we did not give up until the end.

“But I can assure everyone that we will only get better,” said Li Jane, the Singapore 2015 doubles champion.

Veteran Shalin, who started with 163 pinfalls, succinctly summed up the opening game in her eighth SEA Games outing.

“It’s not how you start but how you finish,” said Shalin, who has won a total of 17 golds in her last seven appearances.

“It took me a while to adjust to the lane pattern and I made a few mistakes. I need to clean up my game to help the team.”

National chief coach Holloway Cheah said: “I have mixed feelings. We wanted a gold – that was my expectation from the team. The silver and bronze are OK but I expected better scores.”

But I can assure everyone that we will only get better. Sin Li Jane