Lawn bowler Emma wants to emulate idol Siti

PETALING JAYA: National lawn bowler Emma Firyana Saroji (pic) didn’t have to look far for inspiration.

She just has to turn to her experienced teammate Siti Zalina Ahmad.

The 31-year-old policewoman has always looked up to Siti as her idol and hopes to emulate the latter’s success on the international stage.

Emma is one of the best lawn bowlers in the world and she has the 2015 World Champion of Champions title under her belt.

She almost repeated the feat to become the first two-time winner, man or woman, in the prestigious tournament before she was narrowly denied by Wales’ Laura Daniels in Australia last year.

Still, the down-to-earth Emma insists that she’s nowhere near to Siti just yet.

And one of the major accolades missing from Emma’s trophy cabinet is the Commonwealth Games gold medal.

Emma hopes to go one better at the Gold Coast Games after making her debut in Glasgow four years ago with a silver medal in the fours event with Nur Fidrah Noh, Nor Hashimah Ismail and Azlina Arshad. They lost to South Africa in the final. Emma will be participating in two events this time – singles and pairs.

For the pairs, she will form a dream pairing with Siti, Malaysia’s most successful lawn bowler in the Games with two gold medals.

“It’s such a great honour to be competing alongside my senior, Siti, again,” said Emma.

“Come to think about our partnership, it’s pretty amazing. I was actually idolising her since the day I started playing lawn bowls in 1999. Back then, she was already representing Malaysia.

“We have teamed up several times, winning bronze at the Multi-Nations Lawn Bowls Championships (in Australia last year) and reached the quarter-finals of the World Bowls Championships (in New Zealand in 2016).

“Hopefully this time we would be able to form a winning combination and bring glory to the nation. I could see she’s all pumped up too.

“Siti’s a two-time Commonwealth Games (singles) champion, a one-time World Cup winner and a multiple podium finishers in many major competitions, but she never stops pursuing further excellence.

“She’s setting a good example and I want to be just like her.”

The national lawn bowls team have been based in Gold Coast since Feb 27 as part of their final stage of preparations.

And the move, said Emma, has done them a world of good.

“We have acclimatised to the weather here very well by spending more than a month here,” said Emma.

“The weather can be unpredictable here, so it’s very important that we prepare well for all sorts of conditions because rain and winds would influence the green speed.”