Keep on rolling, girls
Dynamic quartet beat Australia to the team gold
PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian girls are simply unstoppable at the Asian Schools Tenpin Bowling Championships in Kuching.
Gillian Lim, Puteri Nurul Dini Mohd Faudzi, Nur Aina Kamalia Abdul Ayub and Najwa Nazirah Mohd Amir proved that their 1-2 finish in the doubles event on Tuesday was no fluke when they bagged team crown yesterday.
The dynamic quartet were on a roll right from the opening games to amass a total of 4,959 pinfalls over 24 games to overcome Australia (4,626) by a massive 333 pins. Singapore were third with 4,605 pinfalls. Not satisfied, Malaysia also swept the fourth gold in as many girls’ events through Nurul Dini, who pipped Gillian to the AllEvents crown.
Nurul Dini garnered 3,773 pinfalls from the three events to finish first – just four pins ahead of Gillian.
It denied Gillian her fourth gold this week. “Winning two golds in a day is just unbelievable. This has to be the best day of my career,” said Nurul Dini.
“I’m feeling great, especially with the unexpected All-Events victory. I didn’t bother to calculate the scores and focused solely on the team event.
“Of all the three golds (she also won the doubles with Gillian), nothing beats winning the team event with the girls. All of us did well together and deserved it.”
While the girls were on a roll, the boys had to settle for their fourth consecutive runner-up finish after coming in second in the team and All-Events.
Muhd Hazim Alihanafiah, Tun Hakim Tun Hasnul Azam, Muhd Arif Iskandar Azahar and Ahmad Azriq Izamudin posted a 5,077 total to finish 106 pins behind Indonesia (5,183).
The Malaysia B foursome of Abang Afiq Yazid Abang Azman, Tsen Fan Yew, Muhd Nur Syafiq Amran and Morgan Chang pipped Australia to an unexpected bronze by just one pin after compiling a 4,857 total.
Muhd Hazim grabbed the boys’ All-Events silver.
Malaysia have now won four golds, six silvers and two bronzes to head the medal tally ahead of Hong Kong (2-1-1) and Australia (1-10) with two more events – boys and girls’ Masters – to be played today and tomorrow.
Ten Malaysians have made the top-16 cut, five in each division, based on their All-Events standings.
The five boys are Muhd Hazim, Ahmad Azriq, Tun Hakim, Abang Afiq and Muhd Arif while the girls are Nurul Dini, Gillian, Nur Aina, Najwa and Dayang Yumi Azreen.