Umali, Tan hope to follow bowling heroes

While many youth bowlers idolize world champions like Paeng Nepmuceno and Biboy Rivera, Kenzo Umali and Merwin Tan just took one step closer to becoming the Philippines’ future pride in bowling.

Umali and Tan led the Philippine boys’ team to a 3-0-3 (gold-silverbronze) medal haul in the recently concluded 17th Asian Schools Tenpin Bowling Championships held in Hong Kong with 15 participating teams from the Asian region.

“Successful bowlers before us, like Paeng Nepomuceno and Biboy Rivera, showed us that hard work and discipline are the key,” said Umali, who is an incoming Grade 11 student. “It’s not easy to be like them [Nepomuceno and Rivera].”

“Their path to success was all hard earned. Each small victory motivates us to keep going,” said Tan.

Umali bagged Team Philippines’ first gold by knocking down a six-game total of 1369 pins in the boys’ singles. Hong Kong’s Alex Yu and Kuwait’s Mostafa Almousawi got the silver (1338) and bronze (1335).

Umali then paired up with Tan in the boys’ doubles to earn a bronze medal after scoring 2500 over six games, behind winner Hong Kong and first runner-up Macau.

In the team event, Umali, Tan, Ivan Malig and Louis Cantorna kept the top position after the first block with a slim 16-pin lead which they expanded to 142 pins at the end of the second block.