15th January, Jakarta: Malaysia got off to a great start of 2007 with a fabulous double when Alex Liew captured the Men's title of the ABF Tour Tournament of Champions while Wendy Chai won the Women's crown for the second time at Jaya Ancol Bowling Centre on Monday evening.

As the newly-crowned Milo Junior All Stars champion, Belmonte struggled to find his lines, Liew took an early lead with a double strike in the third and fourth frames. Two costly mistakes by the Aussie in frames five and seven gave the confidence to Liew to strikeout in the ninth and tenth frames to cruise to an easy victory, 216-165.

The champion had earlier knocked out Qatar's Abdulla Al-Qattan, 200-183 in the second semifinal match to make the finals while Belmonte edged TOC

debutant, Mohd Noer Said of Malaysia to prevent an all-Malaysian finals, 188-171 in the first semifinal match.

"I was expecting a tough match ahead of the final against Jason (Belmonte) but when he started to struggle in the difficult lane conditions, I was a bit more relax," said the champion, Alex Liew. "From then onwards I was very relaxed and all I had to do was to make sure I didn't make any mistakes.

"I have been to six grand finals and the nearest I got was making the semifinals. Winning the title for the first time is certainly a great way to start the 2007 season."

Liew also ousted Filipino, Chester King, 232-172 in the quarterfinals before being matched up with the Qatari and top-seed, Belmonte eliminated Kuwait's Fadhel Al-Mousawi, 192-176 in the quarterfinals.

In the women's division, Wendy Chai gave Malaysia a fabulous double by winning the women's crown for the second time. Chai took the same title in 2005 in the first ABF Tour TOC also held at Jaya Ancol Bowling Centre.

At the start of the women's finals, it had appeared to be a closely fought match but when Chai brought home six strikes from frame 4 onwards, the champion was in full control while her challenge, Kim Eun Jung of Korea was playing catchup. Chai took the match convincingly 248-210 to claim the women's crown and the top prize of US$10,000 with the Korean settling for US$5,000.

"Winning a title at the start of the year is great but it wasn't easy especially

with an opponent like Kim Eun Jung," said the delighted champion, Wendy Chai. "Fortunately, I used two bowling balls during the finals when the conditions of the left and right lanes were different.

"I'm extremely happy to win the title for the second time and also glad for my teammate, Alex Liew for giving Malaysia a grand double. I like to dedicate this win to my coach, Holloway, parents and Ben Heng, who had helped me during the finals.

The champion had knocked out top-seed, Angkana Netvriseth of Thailand, 224-187 in the first women's semifinal match before going on to claim the title while Kim edged local favourite, Putty Armein of Indonesia, 241-231 in the other semifinal match.

The finals today saw yet another stella year for Asian Bowling Federation in which eight legs were held which began in February in Doha, Qatar and ending with the last leg in September in Hong Kong. The top 16 men and top 16 women made the TOC via ranking points earned from all the legs contested.

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).