SYAZWA ANI STRIKES GOLD AT T WORLD YOUTH C’SHIPS
Wani bowled over by her golden feat at World Youth C’ships
PETALING JAYA: National kegler Nur Syazwani Sahar made a superb comeback to win Malaysia’s first gold medal at the World Youth Championships.
The 19- year- old ended Malaysia’s desperate wait for a medal when she made a late surge to win the girls’ All-Events at the Thunderbowl Lanes in Detroit, United States, on Wednesday.
She sizzled with scores of 256 and 267 in the last two games in the girls’ team event and that strong finish saw her coming out of nowhere to win the AllEvents.
Syazwani accumulated a grand total of 3,937 pinfalls over 18 games (six each from singles, doubles and team) to finish 34 pins ahead of joint runner-up finishers Juliana Botero of Colombia and Hong Sun-hwa of South Korea.
She became only the second Malaysian after Esther Cheah to win the girls’ title.
Esther did it in Pattaya, Thailand, in 2006.
Syazwani was on cloud nine after emerging as the world junior champion.
Her previous best was winning the Thailand Youth Open title in 2015.
“I was shocked when Wendy ( Chai, coach) told me that I’ve won the gold as I was just trying to make good shots to help the team finish in the top four,” said the Kuala Lumpur-born lass, more fondly known as Wani.
“Little did I know that I was in the running for the All- Events because I was placed quite a dis- tance away from the top three.
“It’s a dream come true to have a world youth title to my name.”
Our bowlers are fighters. They stuck with the plan and strategy to manage the lanes. The field is very competitive this year. Six different countries took gold in six events thus far – that says a lot about the competition. Maradona Chok
Syazwani has a chance to add another gold in the team event. Thanks to her individual brilliance, Malaysia made the top-four cut as the second best team.
Together with Gillian Lim, Nur Amirah Auni Azman and Nurameera Husna Aznel, the quartet chalked up a 5,005 total to finish 98 pins behind defending champions South Korea (5,103), while the United States and Sweden came in third (4,987) and fourth (4,956) respectively.
Syazwani, who is the only member of the team that claimed a bronze in Las Vegas two years ago, promised to do better.
Said team manager Maradona Chok: “Our bowlers are fighters. They stuck with the plan and strategy to manage the lanes.
“The field is very competitive this year. Six different countries took gold in six events thus far – that says a lot about the competition.”
Meanwhile, the Malaysian boys’ team comprising Rafiq Ismail, Tun Hakim Tun Hasnul Azam, Brandon Ting and Shahrukh Amin Zulkifli settled for sixth spot and missed the top- four cut by just 21 pins.