16th January, Jakarta: The first block of the ABF Tour Tournament of Championship got underway at Jaya Ancol Bowling Centre as Chester King of the Philippines and Sharon Limansantoso of Indonesia led the Men's and Women's division with a slim margin.

Philippines leg champion, Benshir Layoso opened accounts with a superb 234 to take the early lead but was unable to maintain his pace which saw Hong Kong's Wu Siu Hong grabbing the lead after the second game.

Wu's lead was also short-lived as Filipino, Biboy Rivera picked up his pace to take over the running until halfway mark. A couple of low games from the Filipino allowed Thailand's Somjed Kusonpithak to take a brief lead after the sixth game.

But the two strong games from Chester King allowed the Filipino to to end the block in the lead with a total of 1750 and winning six of the eight round-robin matches. Biboy and Somjed settled for second and third with 1748 and 1743 respectively.

"I just concentrated on making sure I don't make too much mistakes and I guess my consistency allowed me to finish stronger," said the 32-year-old King. "I'll adopt the same strategy tomorrow and focus on making the top 8."

"I was doing well until a couple of bad games in the sixth and seventh games where I lost some grounds," said the 34-year-old Biboy. "But I hope that will not happen tomorrow as it is important to make the knockout stage.

Meanwhile, Indonesia's Sharon Limansantoso and Tannya Roumimper dominated the women's division with a 1-2 finish. Tannya kicked start her campaign with a strong 213 in her opening game but soon lost the lead to Wu Suqin of China.

Two wins in the second and third matches gave Sharon the lead which she held until the seventh when Tannya bounched back with a scintilatting 280 to snatch away Sharon's lead. A lowly 185 from Tannya allowed her compatriot to end the block in the lead with 1762.

Tannya settled for second with 1751, just 11 pins adrift while 2007 Asian Ranked No. 1, Kim Eun Jung of Korea, stormed home to take third spot with 1680. Sharon won five out of the eight matches while Tannya managed four wins.

"My first six matches were good but my rythmn was a bit out in the seventh game," said the 23-year-old 2007 SEA Games Masters gold medalist, Sharon. "I'll make sure not to repeat this in the second block."

"I didn't have very consistent score today but thanks to my high game of 280, I was able to keep close to the leader," disclosed the 17-year-old Tannya, who comes from Bandung, 140km from the capital, Jakarta. "I must put more effort into scoring consistently tomorrow.

The bowlers will resume with their second block of seven matches with pins carried forward tomorrow where the top 8 finishers from each division will make the cut for the knockout rounds on Sunday.

The finals will be recorded and telecast on local station, Metro TV as well as stations throughout Asia where the ABF Tour 2008 legs were held. For further information and details, please logon to www.abftour.com or contact ABF Tour Committee at Tel: +852-2893-6039 or fax to +852-2893-6290 or Email: hktbc@netvigator.com.