Nora stuns field to win ABF title

Tinkering with women’s pairs will continue

PETALING JAYA: Bowler Nora Lyana Nastasia Norkamal repaid the Malaysian Tenpin Bowling Congress’ ( MTBC) faith in her by clinching the Asian Bowling Federation (ABF) Tour’s second leg title in Macau.

Nora failed to make it to the national bowling squad but MTBC decided to give her and three others – Nerosha Keligit, Sharon Koh and Radin Nur Najwa Arifah Radin Dzulfakar – to include them in the team three months ago.

And yesterday the 21-year-old outclassed Japan’s Futaba Imai, the reigning World Championships’ singles gold medallist, 267-209 in a lopsided final to end a three-year title drought. Her last major triumph was at the Thailand Open in April 2015.

“I’m so happy. I have been waiting for this moment and it has finally arrived after three years,” said Nora, who’s the former Asian Youth

champion.

Nora made the top-16 cut for yesterday’s one-day knockout tournament after finishing 11th in the Macau Open which ended on Saturday.

She overcame Thailand’s Kantaporn Singhabuboha 255-200 in the first round, before continuing her march with wins over teammate Nerosha (199-167) and Macau Open runner-up Kim Hyun-A of South Korea (235-234), on her way to final.

Former international Hee Kar Yen failed to make it an all-Malaysian final as she went down fighting 265-278 to Imai. PETALING JAYA: Vivian Hoo and Chow Mei Kuan have proven they can be a success in women’s doubles but national head coach Rosman Razak is still undecided on whether to make their partnership permanent just yet.

Vivian, who lost her regular partner Woon Khe Wei through injury since February, will combine with Soong Fie Cho – her fifth different partner in four months – for the Malaysian Open which begins at the Axiata Arena tomorrow.

Mei Kuan will reunite with Lee Meng Yean and their partnership is currently ranked 15th in the world.

Vivian and Mei Kuan have been impressive since they first paired up in March.

They triumphed at the Vietnam International Challenge and won the gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast in April and reached the semi-finals of the US Open last week.

However, Rosman, intends to continue tinkering with the players in the women’s doubles department until August.

His main goal is to ultimately find two strong pairs who are capable of not only qualifying but also to contend for medals at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

“I’ll bide my time before deciding on the permanent pairings after the World Championships in August. So, I will continue to experiment in the upcoming tournaments with the Malaysian Open being one of them,” said Rosman.

“There are people questioning why I keep changing the pairings. It is because this is the only time I can afford to do so as the Olympics qualification period will begin next January.

“We have been in the world top- 20 bracket long enough and did not progress.

“I’m aiming to discover two top combinations whom we can turn into world top- 10 bracket and subsequently challenge for podium finishes at the Tokyo Olympics.

“Some would probably be laughing at me, but that’s my aspiration when I took charge of the department earlier in February.”

The other two pairs entered for the Malaysian Open are Lim Chiew Sien-Tan Sueh Jeou and Tee Jing Yi-Goh Yea Ching.

Odds are heavily stacked against Meng Yean-Mei Kuan and VivianFie Cho as they face strong Japanese opponents in the opening rounds.

Meng Yean-Mei Kuan are against world No. 4 Misaki MatsutomoAyaka Takahashi while Vivian-Fie Cho take on world No. 13 Naoko Fukuman-Kurumi Yonao.