15th February, Hong Kong: Choi Gui Hyun of Korea defeated top-seed Valerie Teo while top-seed Isao Yamamoto beat Jason Belomonte for the Girl's and Boy's Masters crown at the conclusion of the 12th Asian Youth Championship.

Choi, the Doubles Bronze medalist and 2nd-seed gave top-seed and two Gold medalist, Valerie Teo of Singapore no chance at all when she took the first match 257-236. In the second match, Choi was firing all cyclinders as she knocked down 235 against Valerie's moderate 205 with a two-game of 492 to her opponent's 441.

Choi had earlier sneaked through to the final defeating Japan's Kazumi Satoh by a single pin 206-205 for a match with the Valerie, who settled for the Silver. The Bronze medal went to Kazumi Satoh.

Winning the Gold moved the Koreans to top the Girl's Medal table with 2 Gold, 1 Silver, 2 Bronze and 3 4th placings on 20 points followed by Singapore in second with 2 Gold and 2 Bronze medals on 16 points.

Meanwhile Japan's Isao Yamamoto won back-to-back Masters title when he cruised to an easy victory over his challenger, the Singles and All-Events Gold medalist Jason Belomte of Australia with 431-310 total pinfalls. Yamamoto took the first game 192-147 and ran away with 221-163 in the second match.

Belomte settled for the Silver despite ousting teammate Brandon Qualischefski 266-206 in the first Boy's stepladder match. However, Australia must have been happy to top the Boy's Medal table with 3 Gold, 2 Silver, 3 Bronze and a 4th placing to total a distant 28 points. Japan finished second with 1 Gold and 1 Silver on 8 points.

Australia also topped the Overall Medal tally with 4 Gold, 3 Silver, 2 Bronze and a 4th placing on a whopping 33 points with Korea in second with 2 Gold, 1 Silver, 4 Bronze and three 4th placings on 24 points. Singapore took third spot with 2 Gold, 2 Silver and a 4th place on 17 points.

Further information regarding the Championships can be obtained from Irene Chung of the Hong Kong Tenpin Bowling Congress Ltd, Tel: +852 2891 9786, Fax: +852 2575 2145 or email hktbc@netvigator.com.

For further information, please contact Ms Lynne Clay, ABF Media Director at Tel: +61 419 444 280 or email lynne.clay@tenpin.org.au.

Newsflash by Terence Yaw and photos courtesy of HKTBC.

15th February, Hong Kong: The Masters Finals of the 12th Asian Youth Tenpin Bowling Champion concluded its round-robin finals this afternoon with Japan’s Isao Yamamoto and Singapore’s Valerie Teo occupying the pole positions before the stepladder finals.

Isao Yamamoto, who won the 11th Asian Youth Masters Gold in Abu Dhabi, took over the pole position from the strong Australian boys halfway through the long oil session this afternoon. Isao had 3675 total and won 11 out of the 16 matches. Jason Belmonte, the Singles and Team Gold medalist, came in second with 3644, 31 pins behind Isao while Brandon Qualischefski scored 3607 total for third place.

Jarrod Lean of Australia finished fourth with 3538 to add 1 point to Australia's medal tally followed by Chung Seung Wan of Korea in fifth spot with 3438. Local hopeful and Asian Ranked No. 1 this year, Wu Siu Hong of Hong Kong took sixth place with 3411 ahead of 300-gamer, Hussain Mohhamad in 7th with 3405. First block leader, Jason Nathan Yeong faded out and ended up in 8th with 3401.

Meanwhile Singapore's Valerie Teo, who finished second after the Short Oil session (first 8 games) this morning, made full use of her favorite condition on Long Oil to take over the pole position with 3456 total including 10 wins out of 16 matches. Korea's Choi Gui Hyun finished second with 3427, winning 8 out of her 16 matches while Japan's Kazumi Satoh came from behind with a high game of 257 in the position round to beat another Korean Son Yun Hee for third place and a berth for the stepladder finals.

Australia's Jayde Flanagan finished fifth with 3370 while first block leader, Korea's Lim A Rang faded into 6th spot on 3364. Singles Gold medalist, Nam Bo Ra of Korea did well to recover from a difficult first block finishing 7th position with 3343 followed by Australia's Clair Johnston in 8th with 3314.

Further information regarding the Championships can be obtained from Irene Chung of the Hong Kong Tenpin Bowling Congress Ltd, Tel: +852 2891 9786, Fax: +852 2575 2145 or email hktbc@netvigator.com.

For further information, please contact Ms Lynne Clay, ABF Media Director at Tel: +61 419 444 280 or email lynne.clay@tenpin.org.au.

Newsflash by Terence Yaw and photos courtesy of HKTBC.

15th February, Hong Kong: Korea's Lim A Rang and Singapore's Jason Nathan Yeong led the Girl's and Boy's first block Masters finals of the 12th Asian Youth Tenpin Bowling Championship this morning.

Lim A Rang, the Girl's Team Silver medalist won 7 out of the 8 games first block Masters finals over the Short Oil pattern to lead the Girl's Masters finals with a score of 1848. Lim had lines of 236, 249, 236, 201, 242, 148, 202 and 264 for an impressive average of 222.3. The Korean girls dominated the finals by occupying the top 3 places. Son Yun Hee scored 1706 to take second spot, 142 pins from the leader while Doubles Silver medalist, Choi Gui Hyun finished third with 1658.

Two Gold medalist, Valerie Teo is well placed in fourth with 1635 followed by Malaysia's Choy Poh Lai in fifth spot with 1624. Poh Lai is only 34 pins from third place and if she maintains the momentum into the second block, she can make the cut for the stepladder finals.

Meanwhile in the Boy's division, Jason Nathan Yeong of Singapore topped the pack with a score of 1813 after winning 6 and drawing 1 game of the 8 games first block. Jason knocked down lines of 234, 246, 192, 237, 172, 223, 252 and 192. Team Gold medalist, Jarrod Lean of Australia trailed the leader by 30 pins on 1783 total in second followed by another Australian, Brandon Qualischefski in third with 1778. Only 35 pins seperates the top 3 at the end of this block.

Isao Yamamoto (JPN-1712) and All Events Silver medalist Wu Siu Hong (HKG-1680) finished 4th and 5th respectively. The lanes are being dressed for the Long Oil pattern and the second blcok will begin shortly. The top 3 from each division will make the stepladder finals to determine the Masters champion.

Further information regarding the Championships can be obtained from Irene Chung of the Hong Kong Tenpin Bowling Congress Ltd, Tel: +852 2891 9786, Fax: +852 2575 2145 or email hktbc@netvigator.com.

For further information, please contact Ms Lynne Clay, ABF Media Director at Tel: +61 419 444 280 or email lynne.clay@tenpin.org.au.

Newsflash by Sidney Tung/MTBC and photos courtesy of HKTBC.

14th February, Hong Kong: The Australian Girl's team of Toni Woodcock, Michelle Halprin, Clair Johnston and Jayde Flanagan sprang out of the box at the start of today's Teams event and didn't look back, winning Gold with a 98 pin lead over Korea and 194 ahead of Japan.

A concerted push by the Malaysian girls put them in medal contention mid-way through the event, only to be overtaken by Korea and Japan in the last game.

215.5 and 209.7 averages over the six-game event by Aussies Jayde Flanagan and Toni Woodcock tipped the scales for the Green and Gold. "The girls are firing well," said Coach Cheryl Munson prophetically at the end of the first block on short oil this morning. "I told them today they have to go hard into the second block and with the quality and ability of the bowlers we have here, I'd be very disappointed if we didn't come home with a medal after today," she said. "They've worked very well as a team and I think the only thing that's been missing this week has been their self-confidence," she added

In the Boys division, Korea and Guam shot to first and second place in Game 1 but from Game 2 onwards the strong Australian Boys team grimly held the lead despite a strong run by Korea and Malaysia, with the Thailand and Guam teams also in contention in the first block. Following the change of lane condition to Long oil, Korea and Malaysia jockeyed for Silver and Bronze throughout the last three games.

To the delight of the local supporters, the Hong Kong team stormed home to finish 8 pins ahead of Korea, for Bronze, with the Malaysian Boys winning Silver. A stunning 1492 series and 248.7 average over the six games by ABF's top ranked bowler, Wu Siu Hong from Hong Kong was a highlight of today's play.

Further information regarding the Championships can be obtained from Irene Chung of the Hong Kong Tenpin Bowling Congress Ltd, Tel: +852 2891 9786, Fax: +852 2575 2145 or email hktbc@netvigator.com.

For further information, please contact Ms Lynne Clay, ABF Media Director at Tel: +61 419 444 280 or email lynne.clay@tenpin.org.au.

Newsflash by Lynne Clay and photos courtesy of HKTBC.

14th February, Hong Kong: The youth athletes competing in the 12th ABF Youth Tenpin Bowling Championships have taken the challenge of dual lane conditions in their stride. Records are tumbling, with the bar raised in every category of the Boys and Girls Doubles yesterday.

In the Boys division, Jason Belmonte of Australia posted a 279 high for a single game, but was soon erased again by Hussain Mohhamad's unassailable perfect score in the Singles event on Wednesday while Sithiphol Kunaksorn from Thailand has overtaken the 3-Game Doubles record previously set by Kamarul Azwan from Malaysia in 1997.

Australia's Brandon Qualischefski now holds the 6 and 12 game Doubles records with 1478 and 2742 respectively, while teammate Jason Belmonte made a clean sweep of the 3, 6 and 12 game records with 764, 1509 and 2776 highs during the Singles events.

In the Girls division, Nam Bo Ra from Korea overtook the 1-game record held by fellow Korean Won Mi-Young since 1993 with a 278 game and established the Singles benchmark for 12 games with 2515. Perfect Game

shooter, Valerie Teo Hui Ying from Singapore revamped the entire Doubles record book yesterday posting 300, 753, 1435 and 2601 scores in each category.

Play continues today in the Boys and Girls 4-person Teams events with three games bowled on long oil, followed by a second block of three games on short oil to determine the champion Teams and Masters line-up in this year's ABF Youth Championships.

Further information regarding the Championships can be obtained from Irene Chung of the Hong Kong Tenpin Bowling Congress Ltd, Tel: +852 2891 9786, Fax: +852 2575 2145 or email hktbc@netvigator.com.

For further information, please contact Ms Lynne Clay, ABF Media Director at Tel: +61 419 444 280 or email lynne.clay@tenpin.org.au.

Newsflash by Lynne Clay and photos courtesy of HKTBC.