Not the golden girls

Quartet settle for team bronze in Nebraska

The gold medal continues to elude Malaysian bowlers at the World Youth Championships in the United States.

The quartet of Victoria Chin (pic), Nur Syazwani Sahar, Nora Lyana Nastasia Norkamal and Natasha Roslan had to settle for the girls’ team bronze after going down 209-256 and 155-235 to South Korea in the semi-finals at the Sun Valley Lanes in Nebraska on Monday.

The Koreans – Lee Yeong-seung, Pak Yu-na, Kim Jin-ju and Hong Sun-hwa – also proved too strong for top seeds the United States as they went on to clinch the gold with an emphatic 204-193 and 246-179 victory.

“The Koreans came out with all guns blazing right from the word get go,” said team manager Maradona Chok.

“Our girls did all right, unfortunately they couldn’t get the connecting strikes ... that’s really crucial in an elimination match. We had a few good shots, but the 10th pin stood. There was nothing we could do.

“The Koreans were just sensational ... they also bulldozed past the US for the title.”

It was Malaysia’s fourth medal of the campaign.

Rafiq Ismail and Tun Hakim Tun Hasnul Azam bagged a silver in the boys’ doubles while Victoria contributed silver and bronze in the girls’ singles and all-events.

Maradona said that “team morale is high after claiming several podium finishes”.

“The team’s on a high after winning a couple of medals,” he stressed. “We’re looking forward to fighting for a couple more in the two remaining Masters events.”

The Malaysians are very much in the running for both the boys and girls’s Masters categories with four bowlers having checked into the quarter-finals.

In their first two hurdles, Rafiq beat Hector Simo of the Dominican Republic 192-188, 168216, 269-174 and Holland’s Youri Fens 200222, 234-207, 236-201 while Tun Hakim easily ousted Aseel Alroomi of Kuwait 195-185, 229165 and Germany’s Andre Michow 235-191, 216-192.

Victoria and Natasha, who received a firstround bye as top-eight qualifiers, opened their campaigns with a 211-199, 182-153 victory over Mexico’s Paolo Limon (Mex) and South Korea’s Jin-ju 225-194, 189-223, 204-199.

Nur Syazwani Sahar failed to join her teammates in the last-four after losing 170-212, 175-194 to Mirai Ishimoto of Japan.