Malaysian bowlers fail to make semis in Las Vegas

KUALA LUMPUR: Intense competition at the 2019 World Bowling Women’s Championship saw the national keglers fail to make the cut into the doubles event semifinals.

Sin Li Jane, who bagged silver in last edition with veteran Shalin Zulkifli, paired up with Siti Safiyah Amirah Abdul Rahman to finish eighth overall out of 90 pairs in the doubles event at the South Point Bowling Plaza, Las Vegas on Sunday ( Monday in Malaysia) after accumulating 2,634 pinfalls.

Malaysia’s other pair, Syaidatul Afifah Badrul HamidiNatasha Roslan, only managed 19th place with 2,504 pinfalls while Nerosha Keligit- Esther Cheah ended in 26th place with 2,480 pinfalls.

Colombians Rocio RestrenoMaria Rodriquez (2,758 pinfalls), South Koreans Son Hyerin- Lee Yeonji ( 2,729), Juliana FrancoClara Guerrero also of Colombia (2,727) and Josefin HermanssonJenny Wegner of Sweden (2,706) booked the four semi- final spots.

The semifinals and finals are scheduled for Thursday while the trios event will start the day after followed by the team event and masters.

Team Manager Maradona Chok said despite missing the podium, the national bowlers were getting more comfortable with the oil patterns and showed improvement after none managed to finish in top 30 in the singles event on Saturday.

“Two early splits in the last game shook our doubles team and they could not recover from it as Colombia and Sweden were on form. Despite being down today, the team will be picking up pace again tomorrow in trios and we continue to fight.

“We have to make good shots, we have the right area to play. We just have to strike more than the others. As mentioned earlier, this is a very strong field and many teams have an equal chance,” he said.

Li Jane, Esther and Siti Safiyah are set to form the first trios squad while Nerosha, Natasha and Syaidatul Afifah will form the other.

For the record, Malaysia are defending champions of the team event when Li Jane, Siti Safiyah Syaidatul Afifah, Natasha Roslan and Shalin struck gold in 2017 when the national squad also bagged silver medals in the masters event ( Li Jane), doubles ( Shalin and Li Jane) and All-Events (Siti Safiyah). — Bernama