Holloway’s gamble pays off
Coach’s decision to send in super-sub Siti ensures team gold
NATIONAL bowling head coach Holloway Cheah’s decision to replace Natasha Roslan with Siti Safiyah Amirah Abdul Rahman in the women’s team event proved to be a masterstroke.
The 26-year-old Siti came on as a super-sub to help the five-woman Malaysia team beat Singapore and retain the gold medal by 61 pins at the Sunway Mega Lanes in Subang Jaya yesterday.
The Malaysians rolled down 6,264 pins.
Siti is the reserve in the Malay ysian women’s team, which comprise Shalin Zulkifli, Sin Li Jane, Esther Cheah, Natasha and Syaidatul Afifah Badrul Hamidi.
Siti, also fondly known as Sofy, was told by Holloway that she would only start in the second block, which featured the long-oil pattern, against Singapore.
And the one-time US PWBA Tour champion went on to contribute a decent pair of 234 and 236 in the fourth and fifth games to help Malaysia build a whopping 204-pin lead over Sinngapore heading into final game. Malaysia had earlier ended the morning’s fiirst block in second place – nine pins behind the Philippines, who eventually slipped to third for bronze with a 6,075 total.
Siti said that playing in the presence of her father Abdul Rahman Shariff, who celebrated his 60th birthday yesterday, served as an extra motivation.
“I want to dedicate this gold as a birthday present to my dad – a Merdeka baby,” said Siti, who also won bronze in the trios with Syaidatul and Natasha on Wednesday.
“I went into the second block full of confidence as long-oil is my cup of tea. I’m glad to have played my part in helping the team defend the gold.
“To win the team gold is always special because we become champions together.”
Team captain Shalin said the commanding lead in the penultimate round “sure came in handy for us”.
“It’s been quite a while since we managed to go into the final game with such a comfortable lead. The last time was probably at the (2006) Asian Games (in Doha). Even with such massive advantage, we knew that the gold is not won until after the last throw.
“And true enough we began to struggle as the lanes dried up towards the end and our rivals managed to reduce the deficit. Thankfully, we still won.”
While the women rejoiced, there was only doom and gloom in the men’s camp after they were dethroned for the first time since Korat 2007 as Singapore’s men made up on their women’s disappointment by clinching gold with a 6,399 total.
Malaysia – comprising Alex Liew, Adrian Ang, Rafiq Ismail, Syafiq Ridhwan Abdul Malek, Timmy Tan and Ahmad Muaz Fishol - could only manage 6,239 for fourth place.
This is the first time they have missed out on a podium finish since Chiangmai 1995.
Indonesia (6,280) took silver and Thailand (6,278) bronze.
Malaysia have so far collected five golds, four silvers and two bronzes at the KL Games and are still on course to equalling their best-ever seven-gold haul at Brunei 1999 and KL 2001.
The bowling competition concludes today with men and women’s Masters events, featuring the top 16 qualifiers from the All-Events standings. Only Timmy and Syafiq failed to make the cut from the Malaysian team.