Fifth-place finish puts Muaz in good stead for Asian Games

By TAN MING WAI

PETALING JAYA:

National bowler Ahmad Muaz Fishol has a reason to smile again.

After struggling to impress in the first half of the year, the 25-year-old reproduced his A-game to finish a creditable fifth in the Professional Bowlers’ Association (PBA) Tour’s Lubbock Sports Open in Texas, United States, on Sunday.

Muaz missed out on the top-four stepladder finals by just 41 pins after rolling a 22-game total of 5,269.

Rafiq Ismail, who was third in the Greater Jonesboro Open in Arkansas the previous week, also made it to top-16 match-play round but finished 14th with 5,026 pinfalls.

Debutant Tun Hakim Tun Hasnul Azam and veteran Alex Liew were eliminated earlier and finished 19th and 25th.

American Chris Barnes won his 12th PBA Tour title after coming from behind to beat compatriot Jakob Butturff 207-206 in the final.

Muaz, who enjoyed his best outing since finishing third in last year’s World Cup, was relieved to rediscover his form ahead of the Asian Games in Jakarta from Aug 18-Sept 2.

“I’m obviously gutted to miss the top four cut and a shot at winning. But a fifth placing in the PBA Tour isn’t too bad either,” said Muaz.

“I was targeting a top-10 finish in one of the two tournaments here but I’ve done better. I was awful last week (finished 78th in the Greater Jonesboro Open qualifying), so it was nice to bounce back strongly.

“This week is also memorable because I scored my first perfect game in PBA and almost got my second when I beat Butturff (299218) in match play. I also scored wins against Wes Mallot and EJ Tackett, who are among the biggest stars on the Tour.

“Such positive performance is certainly reassuring with the Asian Games just two months away,” added Muaz, who did not make the cut in the AIK International Tournament in Sweden, Brunswick Ballmaster Open in Finland and Brunswick Euro Challenge in Germany.

The bowlers have been given a short Hari Raya break and are expected to report for centralised training for the Asian Games on June 19.