The comeback girls
Gillian and Dini storm back from ninth to clinch doubles title
PETALING JAYA: Gillian Lim and Puteri Nurul Dini Mohd Faudzi staged a remarkable comeback to clinch the girls’ doubles title for Malaysia’s 40th gold in the Asian Schools Tenpin Bowling Championships.
Trailing by 117 pins after the fourth round, the new combination made a late charge by posting a combined 510 and 474 in their fifth and sixth games for a 12-game total of 2,470 pinfalls to storm from ninth place to emerge champions at the Megalanes Sarawak in Kuching yesterday.
It was Gillian’s second gold in as many days, having won the singles crown on Monday.
Malaysia A’s Najwa Nazirah Mohd Amir and Nur Aina Kamalia Abdul Ayub made it a 1-2 finish for the host with a 2,424 total.
Fourth-round leaders Fiona Yew and Zong Shin Yi of Singapore amassed 2,417 pinfalls to claim the bronze.
Gillian was quick to credit coach Wendy Chai for inspiring their turnaround.
“We owe this win to coach Wendy. We could not have done it without her,” said Gillian.
“She noticed that the balls were not reacting well (to the lane), so she touched up the surface for us after the fourth game.
“She told us to not give up and to trust the ball and ourselves. We started to bowl well after that, jumping from ninth to first after the fifth and then raced away to win it,” added Gillian, who is also leading the girls’ all-events after the first two events.
Dini was left pinching herself after the win.
“It’s really special. I don’t think I have ever come back to win like this,” said the Kedahan.
“This is the first time I’m partnering Gillian. We used to be rivals in the national competitions but today we encouraged each other and fought hard to win gold for the country.”
Malaysia also bagged a boys’ doubles silver through Muhd Hazim Alihanafiah and Ahmad Azriq Izamudin, the boys’ singles runner- up, after they garnered 2,625 pinfalls to finish 71 pins behind Australia’s Callum BorckLachlan Stephenson.
Singles champion Ivan Tse of Hong Kong rolled the tournament’s first perfect game in his opening round but he and partner Alex Yu were only good for third with a 2,623 total.
The tournament resumes with team events today.