Keglers on fire in HK
Tun Hakim-Adrian make sure of second medal for nation
PETALING JAYA: The national bowling team are on a roll at the Men’s World Championships in Hong Kong.
Adrian Ang and Tun Hakim Hasnul Azam assured Malaysia their second medal in as many events after qualifying for the doubles’ medal rounds on Sunday by coming in third in the preliminary six-game roll-off yesterday.
Adrian-Tun Hakim, had set the early pace with a total of 2,596 pins when they bowled in Squad 2 on Tuesday.
Their efforts proved enough to remain in the top four although they were overtaken at the top by the United States combination of EJ Tackett- Andrew Anderson and Dan MacLelland-Francois Lavoie of Canada, who tore the field apart in Squad 3 yesterday.
Anderson, the top finisher in the singles event on Monday, joined forces with fellow American PBA Tour star Tackett to fire a sizzling 2,756 total, 90 pins ahead of their Canadian rivals in second spot while Squad 4 winners Park Jong-woo-Kim Kyung-min of South Korea claimed the last ticket with 2,579.
As the third seeds, Adrian-Tun Hakim will take on second seeds MacLelland-Lavoie while Tackett-Anderson will be out to defend the gold for the Americans by first meeting Jong-woo-Kyung-min.
Tun Hakim was over the moon after securing his first medal in his world meet debut.
“I went to the toilet six times, I think that explains how nervous I was,” said Tun Hakim, who had won the doubles silver with Rafiq Ismail at the 2016 World Youth Championships in Las Vegas.
“Words can’t decribe my feeling when the final result was out. It’s my target to win a medal in my maiden outing, I’m so pleased that I did it.
‘But there’s a chance to improve on the colour and a chance to become world champion, so there’s still plenty to play for.”
For the 31-year-old Adrian, this was the closest he had ever been to contending for the world championship title – after failing to win a single medal in his first five appearances since 2008 edition in Bangkok.
“I will have a medal to bring home finally,” said Adrian, a
quadruple gold medallist at the 2011 Indonesia SEA Games.
“But it’s not the time to get excited or to celebrate just yet. All we need to do is to keep executing good shots. There’s still the trios, team and possibly the Masters.
“It’s been good so far for the team with Rafiq making the singles semi-finals, we must try to make it even better.”
Team manager Maradona Chok hailed the team efforts for equalling Malaysia’s previous best haul of two medals in Busan in 2006 after just two events.
In 2006, Malaysian won silver in team and bronze in trios.
The tournament resumes with the trios event. Coach Ben Heng put together the three in-form players Rafiq, Adrian and Tun Hakim in one team while Syafiq Ridhwan Abdul Malek, Alex Liew and Timmy make up the other combination.