13th January, Jakarta: Current Asian Ranked No. 1, Putty Armein of Indonesia and Chester King of the Philippines hung on to lead the Women's and Men's first block qualifying round of the ABF Tour - Tournament of Champions underway at Jaya Ancol Bowling Centre Saturday evening.

The 25-year-old top Indonesia women set an early pace only to see her lead overtaken by 2005 Vietnam Open champion and 2003 World Championship Masters bronze medalist, Kim Eun Jung of Korea. Kim kept a steady pace to continue her lead until Armein put in her challenge from game 5 onwards.

With lines of 232, 266, 227 and 202 in the last four games, the leader was able to keep the lead going into tomorrow's second block with total of 1814 pinfalls. Armein won seven of the eight games first block to finish ahead of

Thailand's Angkana Netvriseth who finished strongly to snatch second spot from Kim with 1784.

"Competing in home is obviously an advantage and this could have given me the confidence to do well," said the leader, Putty Armein. "I hope I can keep my momentum into the second block tomorrow and make the knockout stage.

Kim settled for third with 1723 ahead of triple leg champion and Doha Asian Games gold medalist, Shalin Zulkifli in fourth position on 1665. 2004 TOC champion, Wendy Chai did well to take up fifth spot with 1647 while Filipina, Liza Clutario (1639), Korea's Kang Hyun Jin (1600) and two-time Milo International Junior champion, Siti Safiyah Amirah eighth with 1595.

In the men's division, Chester King of the Philippines was a class above the field after cruising to the lead with 1858 and winning all the eighth match to finish 73 pins ahead of pace-setter and this year's tour double leg champion, Mubarak Al-Muraikhi of Qatar in second with 1785.

Mubarak's fellow compatriot, Abdulla Al-Qattan stormed home in his final three-game series to snatch third spot with 1751 from top qualifier Zumazran Zulkifli of Malaysia, who settled for fourth spot with 1729. Zulmazran, who was awarded the overall best performer in this season's tour, could only manage a 171 in his final match to drop out of the top 3.

"I guess I'm fortunate that we had to come to Jakarta two days earlier than most competitors due to flight availability which gave me and my teammates

extra days to practice," said the 30-year-old King. "So when we started the first block, I knew where to line up my shots to sore well.

Newly-crowned Milo International Junior All Stars champion, Jason Belmonte of Australia also made up ground in his last four matches to finish amongst the top 5 with 1727. Mohd Noer Said of Malaysia (1711), Fadhel Al-Mousawi of Kuwait (1703) and twice Indonesia Open champion, Alex Liew of Malaysia (1701) rouded up the top 8 from sixth to eighth positions respectively.

The 16 women and 16 men will continue their second block of 7 games Sunday afternoon commencing at 3.00pm local Jakarta time. The top 8 in both divisions will make the cut for the knockout stage on Monday.

ABF Tour TOC is the grand slam finals for this year's tour. The ABF Tour 2006 comprises 8 Legs and a Grand Final. Top 16 men and 16 women bowlers from the preceding International Open Masters Event (Open Grade) will be qualified and competed in a one-game match play knock-out competition for the individual men's and women's titles.

Highlights of the ABF Tour - Tournament of Champions will be televised later on local television stations of the eight countries where the tour is being held. It is also broadcast later from parts of Europe, Africa, the Middle East, central Asia, China and Australasia with an estimated audience of around 90 million.

The ABF Tour - TOC will be telecast on some of the key television stations in the region. For further information and details please contact ABF Tour Committee Marketing and Event Management Division at Tel: (852) 2810 5191; Fax: (852) 28105192; Mr. Ritchie Lai (Mobile: (852) 93598669; email: ritchie.lai@tndgroup.com) or Mr. Kelvin Pong (Mobile: (852) 9100 0958; email: Kelvin.pong@tndgroup.com).