Bowler Siti Safiyah is pining for the pins

PETALING JAYA: While the sailors and badminton players have resumed training, national bowler Siti Safiyah Amirah Abdul Rahman is pining.

With malls open, including Sunway Pyramid, she would like to return to training too – at the Sunway Megalanes.

“Bowling is a non-contact sport. I have seen bowlers from other countries practising social distancing when bowling. They would have at least two lanes gap or one-metre gap from each other even when they’re bowling on the same pair of lanes.

“We are still waiting for the green light from MSN (National Sports Council) to allow us to start training. I don’t think there’s a problem because the mall is open to the public now,” said the 29-yearold.

“I’m pretty sure the Malaysian Tenpin Bowling Congress (MTBC) have some safety precautions for us to follow so we can start practising soon.”

Sofy, as she is fondly known, won three silver medals (Masters, mixed doubles and team) in the Philippines SEA Games last December.

She has been performing consistently since emerging triumphant in the Thailand Open in April last year and the National Championships in August.

Siti Safiyah also impressed with two podium finishes in Europe – she was third in the European Bowling Tour (EBT) Masters and the mixed-field Brunswick Madrid Challenge.

This year, she had been looking forward to the Asian Championships and Professional Women’s Bowling Association (PWBA) tournaments, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic, she can only target the Asian meet.

“We were supposed to have flown to the US for the PWBA before the lockdown, but we had to cancel everything. It was supposed to be our first tournament of the year.

“For now, I’m looking forward to the Asian championships because that’s the only major tournament left in 2020,” she said.