13th July, Bangkok: Korea's Gye Min-Young and Chinese Taipei's Kao Hai Yuan ended the 18th Asian Tenpin Bowling Championship winning the Men's and Women's Masters Gold medals at P.S. Bowl this afternoon.

Chinese Taipei won their eighth gold medal this afternoon as Kao Hai-Yuan defeated Singapore's Lim Zhong, 414-394, over the Championship match in the three-person Stepladder Final. Qualifying as second seed after the grueling 16 games of the Masters, eight of which were played on short oil, the second eight on long, Kao had to face team-mate Wu Hao-Ming, the third seed, for a shot at the title. He took that game, 213-188, after leading from the first frame.

The Championship match, played over two games, with total pinfall to count, saw Kao establish an early lead, taking the first game, 220-190, and carried forward a buffer of 30 pins. Lim made a determined comeback in the final stages, but could not get the closing strikes he needed to take the match, finishing with the better score, 204-194, but did not make up the lost ground, so lost by 20 pins overall.

The Women's Stepladder saw Korea's Gye Min-Young, the third seed put Zhang Yuhong of China into the Bronze medal position, winning the opening game, 181-162. She then faced burly Ann-Maree Putney of Australia and won the first game, 190-183.

Putney lost any chance of a comeback as the action moved into the second game through splits in the second and fifth frames and an open in the eighth, finishing with 190 to Gye's 191. Gold to Korea, Gye totaling 381 over the two games, Putney taking Silver with 357.

Chinese Taipei have made these Asian Championships their very own, winning eight of the twelve Gold medals and adding two Silver and three Bronze for good measure, believed to be an all-time record for these

Championships. Korea won three Gold and Singapore one, to make up the total of twelve.

The men's high individual game was 288 by the Masters Gold medalist, Kao Hai-Yuan, and the women's is 279, shared by Shalin Zulkifli of Malaysia and another Masters Gold medalist, Gye Min-Young of Korea.

The best record is that established by Wu Hao-Ming of Chinese Taipei, winning four Gold, one Silver and one Bronze medals, therefore mining ore in each event.

Story and photos by Keith Hale, ABF Media Co-ordinator for the Championship.

12th July, Bangkok: Chinese Taipei clinched their sixth Gold medal of the 18th Asian Tenpin Bowling Championship, winning the Five-Person Team event after trailing China in the overnight standings of their first three of six games.

Wu Hao-Ming, Wang Tien-Fu, Lin Yi-Chen and Kao Hai-Yuan bowled the full complement of six games, Cheng Chao-Sheng and Chen Chun-Chieh bowled three each, to total 6104, 85 pins clear of second-placed China. The United Arab Emirates surged into third place for their second bronze medal, overtaking Korea and Australia in the final game.

Wu Hao-Ming of Chinese Taipei won the Men's All Events with a total score over the 36 games of Singles, Doubles, Trios and Five-Person team of 7644, so Chinese Taipei have now hauled in seven Gold, two Silver and two Bronze medals, an Asian Championship record.

Wu Siu Hong of Hong Kong, who has consistently held second place, took the Silver medal with 7578. He was unable to overhaul the Taiwanese but kept Bronze medalist Lin Yi-Chien (7520), also of Chinese Taipei at bay.

Kittirat Naranong, President of the Thailand Stock Exchange presented the All Events medals to the women winners, team managers and federations and Lath Thomas, President of Iraqi Bowling Central Federation carried out the medal presentations for the Women's Five-Person Teams.

For the Men's division, Dr. Danny Santos, Secretary General of the FIQ and Philippine Bowling Congress presented the medals to the winning teams. Kyohei Akagi, Honorary Life President of the WTBA and President of the Japan Bowling Congress, made the presentations to the Men's All Events medalists.

Competition concludes Tuesday with the Masters, comprising the top 16 men and 16 women from the All Events. These groups will play a round

robin and the top three from each division will advance to the Stepladder Final, televised live on UBC TV.

Story by Keith Hale, ABF Media Co-ordinator for the Championship, photos by Sidney Tung, MTBC.

12th July, Bangkok: Overnight leaders, Chinese Taipei fought off strong challenges from China and Malaysia to win their fifth Gold medal at the conclusion of the Women's Team of Five event at P.S. Bowl this morning.

Six medal positions were decided this morning as the Women's Five-Person Team event reached its conclusion with a close and exciting final game deciding the outcome, the final results coming from the last balls of the tenth frame.

The treasured awards went not only to the conquering teams but also to the individual woman who had amassed the most points from their Singles, Doubles, Trios and Fives, a total of 36 games in all.

Chinese Taipei were the overnight team leaders, taking pole position this morning from the first block on the short oil condition, and retained that lead through the fifth game on long oil, fighting off the strong challenges from China and Malaysia through a strikefest in the final game to earn the top

place on the podium and the Gold medal, all by the narrow margin of 42 pins, scoring 5949.

China's determined bid for glory, egged on by a large cheering section on the packed concourse, earned them the Silver medal with 5907 and Malaysia held off Korea's charge to take the bronze, scoring 5790, just 149 off the pace.

Chinese Taipei's Lin Yi-Fan, 32, Wang Ya-Tin, 20, Pan Yu-Fen, 25, Hung Shun-Chun, 30, and Tsai Shin-Yi, 26, managed to keep their cool, despite the heavy pressure and the noises from the crowded concourse. Star player was Lin Yi-Fan, totaling 1233, an average of 205.5.

On Sunday evening, after their first three games, the Chinese Taipei team manager stated that the team bowl well together because they practice a lot and are a happy team. That certainly applies now that they can show off the gold medals.

Gye Min-Young of Korea came through to sneak the gold medal in All Events, hitting a mighty 1291 series over the six team games to oust China's Zhang Yhong from pole position to the silver medal. Shalin Zulkifli of Malaysia took the bronze position. Just 31 pins over the 36 games covered the first three places in the All Events table.

The top 16 women in All Events advanced to the Masters, a further eight games on long oil and eight on short, being played on Tuesday, 13th July. Then the top three will qualify for the Stepladder Finals later in the afternoon which will be transmitted live on UBC Television.

Story and photos by Keith Hale, ABF Media Co-ordinator for the Championship.

11th July, Bangkok: The talented quintet of Lin Yi-Fan, Wang Ya-Ting, Pan Yu-Fen, Hung Shun-Chun and Tsai Shin-Yi, hit an outstanding score of 2982 to top the leader board after the first three of the six games of the Women's Team event on the Short Oil condition this evening.

Yes, this incredible team that has almost dominated each and every event, has done it again. Four of the women exceeded 600, Pan Yu-Fen hitting the best score of 617 over the three games. Korea came up into second place, 90 pins behind the Taiwanese, their best player being Hwang Sun-Ok with 612.

Malaysia flew out of the traps to hit the top after the first game, but dropped to third after the second. A good last game of 955 saw them consolidate that position, just four pins behind the Koreans.

When the Chinese Taipei coach was asked for the secret of the team's success, he replied, "We practice much more than most teams and teach the players to have confidence in themselves. They have to concentrate but be happy when they play."

The players were unanimous in the happiness stakes. "We stayed focused and avoided pressure as much as we can," the group commented. "For our performance today we gave ourselves eight points out of ten and hoped to improve to a better score tomorrow. Although we changed to the long oil then, it is more or less the same to us as we are all using the spinner style."

Shalin Zulkifli of Malaysia, the lady who holds the distaff high game with 279, bowled a 636 and brought herself back to the top of the All Events, the total individual scores from Singles, Doubles, Trios and the first three games of the Five-Person Team events. Her total pinfall of 6620 ties with overnight leader Ann-Maree Putney of Australia, both averaging 200.6 per game.

The top 16 women in All Events after Monday's final three games of the Team event will qualify for the Masters, a round robin, which is played on Tuesday, 13th July.

Story by Keith Hale, ABF Media Co-ordinator for the Championship, photos by Sidney Tung, MTBC.

11th July, Bangkok: China, kings of the short oil condition, once again dominated the action at P.S. Bowl in Bangkapi as the events moved into the Men's Five-Person Teams, historically the most exciting part of any major tenpin championship by taking the first block lead.

Bowling their first three game-series on short oil before the final set Monday morning on the long oil, the Chinese team line-up of Liu Shayoyi, 28, Wang Guofo, 42, Ou Zhibiao, 41, Zhang Ye, 28, and Lu Jianhua, 36, stamped their authority over the 26 Men's teams with an opening team game of 1075, their combination of four 'spinners' and one hook bowler, Zhang Ye, working very well.

Japan and Singapore were close on their tails with 1062 and 1058 respectively, but the Chinese pulled away in the second game, helped enormously by a 288 game from Zhang Ye, who left the 3-10 split with the second ball in the tenth frame to spoil his chance of a perfect game. That pulled them 45 pins clear of Australia, who overtook Japan with a 1012 and pushed them into third place.

"I am very pleased with the team's performance today," said the China coach. "Watching the string of strikes by Zhang Ye for his 288 game was especially exciting. I think we will carry this on and do well on the long oil condition on Monday."

The cheers for most of the teams seemingly raised the bowling center roof by at least a metre during the third and final game of Sunday's men's play. The Philippines made a strong bid for the medal positions, hitting the high game of the day with 1097 and then slotted into second place.

Japan and Chinese Taipei bowled well, too, and the Japanese snuck into third place with a 30-pin buffer over the Taiwanese, the latter certainly not accustomed to being out of the top three in any event.

Abdul Salam Abbas Hassan, Second Vice-President of the World Tenpin Bowling Association and Vice-President of the Qatar Bowling Federation, presented the medals to the men winners of the Trios event and the team managers and federation. He was assisted by Joey Miranda III, Secretary General of the Guam Bowling Congress.

The Women's trios medal ceremony featured Major General Hanafi Ryiad, President of the Egyptian Bowling Federation presenting the medals to the lady winners, the team managers and federations, whilst Francis Teo, Vice-President of the Singapore Tenpin Bowling Congress gave the souvenirs to the medalists.

The Women's teams take over the lanes this afternoon for their first three of the six game series, the first part on the short oil condition.

Story by Keith Hale, ABF Media Co-ordinator for the Championship, photos by Sidney Tung, MTBC.

10th July, Bangkok: Cheng Chao-Sheng, Kao Hai Yuan and Chen Chun-Chieh overtook team-mates to complete a 1-2 finish in the Men's Trios event while first block leader, Wang Ya-Ting, Pan Yu-Fen and Hung Shun-Chun took the Gold in the Women's division.

Just as everyone at the 18th Asian Tenpin Bowling Championship at the P.S. Bowl in Bangkapi thought that the Chinese Taipei duo of Wu, Lin and Wang would top the podium at the medal ceremonies for the Trios event tomorrow (Sunday), their score of 3737 set on the early squad, but their hopes were dashed by none other than their team-mates on the second squad.

Outstanding bowling for the three games on the tough short oil condition brought Taiwanese Cheng Chao-Sheng, 24, from Taipei; Chen Chun-Chieh, 40, also from Taipei; and Kao Hai-Yuan, 42, from Kauchong to first place with 3845 over the six games, 108 pins better than their counterparts. Kao, the senior man on the team proved that experience beats youth by bowling the high series, a fantastic 1416 for a 236 average, 150 pins better than his best team-mate.

Both Chinese Taipei teams were ecstatic at their success. "We are just one big happy family," said Kao. "Of course, we are very pleased to win the gold medal and our other team is very happy for us, too."

The trio from the United Arab Emirates won their first medal, a bronze, coming up into third place with a strong finish and ousting Japan to fourth. Sayed Al Hashemi, Sultan Al Marzouqi and Mohammed Al Qubaisi, the recent World Ranking Masters champion, bowled supremely as a team, all scoring in the 1200's.

Home team Thailand, who finished third in Squad A and Japan, who was also third in Squad B only managed to finish fourth overall whilst Thailand missed out dropping to seventh.

The fight for the top of the Women's division was, indeed, long and hard. Chinese Taipei's trio of Wang Ya-Ting, Pan Yu-Fen and Hung Shun-Chun had set 3545 as the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and trios from Indonesia, China and the Philippines had their hearts set on beating that target. Just 75 pins covered the top five places when the dust of battle settled and the Chinese Taipei score stood firm for gold.

Like so many teams before them, Indonesia missed out with a fairly low scoring final game, despite Happy Soediyono finishing with a 233, so team-mates Putty Armein and Ivana Hie will still have the honor of standing in the silver medal position on the podium.

China bagged the bronze, sneaking in by just six pins over the Philippines. Zhang Yuhong, Xu Lan and Xu Yong finished on 3497, with Xu Yong contributing 242 in the final game, 22 pins back from the Indonesians.

The Women's All Events pack has been shuffled again. A poor showing in Trios by Malaysia's Shalin Zulkifli took her from the top of the leader board down to fifth and the indomitable Ann-Maree Putney from Australia resumes pole position with 6052. She has a 12-pin buffer over Singles champion Alice Tay of Singapore (6040) and Zhang Yuhong of China holds third (6014).

Wu Hao-Ming of Chinese Taipei has taken over at the top of the Men's table with a good Trios score and an overall points total of 6363, but he only has a slim three points over Wu Siu Hong of Hong Kong. Previous leader Choi Bok-Eum now lies third on 6351.

The top 16 men and 16 women in All Events, the aggregate scores of Singles, Doubles, Trios and Five-Person Teams, will advance to the Masters on Tuesday next.

Story by Keith Hale, ABF Media Co-ordinator for the Championship, photos by Sidney Tung, MTBC.

10th July, Bangkok: Chinese Taipei completely dominated the Trio's Squad B second block at P.S. Bowl in Bangkapi, taking over the leader board in both the Men's and Women's divisions, reveling in the short oil condition this morning.

Overnight leaders Japan in the Men's division and Malaysia in the Women's were both eclipsed by the morning squad. The Malaysian women had a bad morning session and dropped to fourth place, so definitely out of the medal places, but Japan hold a tenuous third place with the second squad yet to bowl. Current runners-up are the United Arab Emirates, hoping for a chance of their first medal in these exciting Championships.

The Taiwanese women have set a score that is going to be very difficult to beat. Wang Ya-Ting, Pan Yu-Fen and Hung Shun-Chun had the packed crowd of spectators cheering to the rafters as they closed their sixth game with a 713 total, Wang 245, Pan 213 and Hung 255. The target now from Chinese Taipei for the rest of the Women's Trios for the incoming squad to beat is 3546.

It seems that the only team that has a chance to do that is China, but they will have to reach out to hit a six-game series of 1818, much higher than the 1729 they bowled on Friday. The Philippines came into the frame for the first time, 55 pins behind Chinese Taipei in the Women's division and the Koreans sit third.

The Chinese Taipei Men's Trios team bowled out of their skins, zooming to the top of the table from eighth place, opening their first game of the second block with 684, then backed that up with 618 and 608 for an overall total of 3737. Wu Hao-Ming had the best individual score on the team with 1292, then Lin Yi-Chien hit 1272 and Wang Tien-Fu brought up with 1173.

The home crowd will be rooting for the Thailand trio of Sitiphol Kunaksorn, Somjade Kusonpithak and Yannaphon Larpapharat. Their aim will be to bowl a total of 1850 for the Gold medal, slightly less than the 1888 they scored over the first three games. But this time they are bowling on the short oil, which seems to be a lower scoring condition for a lot of the players.

Overnight leader, Japan dropped to third, 46 pins behind the Chinese Taipei.

The Saturday afternoon squad will complete the Trios event. The action moves to five-person teams, again over six games, three on short oil, three on long, running through Sunday, 11th July and Monday, 12th July.

Story and photos by Keith Hale, ABF Media Co-ordinator for the Championship.

9th July, Bangkok: Isao Yamamoto-Masaru Ito-Hirofumi Morimoto of Japan and Zandra-Esther-Shalin of Malaysia knocked off Squad A leaders to take the overall lead in the Men's and Women's Trios first block of three games at P.S. Bowl this afternoon.

Japan stole Thailand's thunder by knocking the Bangkok trio off the top of the leader board as the second squad completed their three games in the Trios event on the long oil condition this afternoon.

Thailand's trio of Sitiphol Kunaksorn, Somjade Kusonpithak and Yannaphon Larppaharat had set the target of 1888 in the morning's opening squad, but Japan's Isao Yamamoto, Masaru Ito and Hirofumi Morimoto came home with 1901 in their bag to be the tournament leaders overnight.

Masaru really clinched the series for the Japanese, hitting three solid 200-plus games of 253, 224 and 204, a total of 681, to help his team zoom up through the standings to hold first place.

The best men's series bowled during the day was 697 by Kim Jong-Wook of Korea, his high game a 267. Unfortunately, his team-mates could not match his pace and they currently hold third place, but just 18 pins off the lead.

The irrepressible Choi Bok-Eum of Korea, who is having the tournament of his life, having already hauled in a gold medal in Doubles and a bronze in Singles, tops the Men's division with a 214 average and a 5787 total pinfall. He is 77 pins ahead of Chinese Taipei's Wu Hao-Ming whilst Wu Siu Hong of Hong Kong holds third place on 5692.

The All Events, the total pinfall of the competitors from each section of the Championships, now includes the 12 games of Singles, 12 in Doubles and the three games of Trios, totaling 27 games to date.

Malaysia dominated the Women's division, finishing with 1829, 83 pins in front of Korea's trios of Kwon Yong-Pil, Hwang Sun-Ok and Koo Hyun-Jee, who totalled 1746. Malaysia's Zandra Aziela, Esther Cheah and Shalin Zulkifli combined well and bowled 637, 583 and 609 respectively. Squad A leader, Zhang Yuhong, Xu Lan and Xu Yong of China was a further 17 pins back in third place with a total pinfall of 1729.

Shalin Zulkifli of Malaysia, a bowler to be feared across the world, is mastering the lanes after her runner-up finish in the recent World Ranking Masters in Moscow. She is tied at the top of the table with veteran Alice Tay on 5467. Tay pipped Zulkifli to the Women's Singles Gold by just one pin earlier in the week.

Both the men's and women's team will continue with their final three games on the short oil pattern on Saturday, 10th July. The top 16 men and 16 women from the All Events, which will total 36 games, will advance to the Masters on Tuesday, 13th July.

Story and photos by Keith Hale, ABF Media Co-ordinator for the Championship.

9th July, Bangkok: Yannaphon-Sithiphol-Somjade of host nation Thailand and Zhang Yuhong-Xu Lan-Xu Yong of China set the pace to take the lead in the Men's and Women's Trios Squad A first block of 3 games on Long Oil condition at P.S. Bowl this morning.

Thailand's talented young trio of Sithipol Kunaksorn, 18, Somjade Kusonpithak, 17, and Yannaphon Larpapharat, 20, set the pace on Squad A, the first of two squads bowling on the Long Oil condition today at the P.S. Bowl, totaling 1888 over the first three games, eight points more than their closest competitors Chinese Taipei, who finished their squad with 1880.

Thailand's top bowler was high school student Somjade, who hit game scores of 243, 245 and 170 to total 658, but the highest game came from Sitiphol, now in his first year at university, with a 278 as the last of his three games. The youngster opened with a humble 150 then fired on all cylinders with a 210 before the 278. That late surge brought the team from third place to the top of the leader board.

"We're confident that we will bowl well tomorrow and bring Thailand its first medal, hopefully gold," said Yannaphon, a university student in his third year. "We bowl well on short oil and may even come back with a higher score than today. It was great that Sitiphol bowled a 278 in his last game, he gave us the edge to hit first place."

Early pacesetters were once again the Koreans, but they dropped to third place overall as their last game totaled only 575. A tremendous last game of 691 from Chinese Taipei brought them very close to Thailand. Star of that trio was Kao Hai-Yun, bronze medalist in the men's doubles, hitting 662 over his three games.

In the Women's division, Zhang Yuhong, Xu Lan and Xu Yong of China top the 13 female teams which have so far completed their first squad. Their total of 1729 included a 245 opening game from Yong and a 228 by Xu Yuhong in the second game. The high game on this squad was a 236 by Vanessa Fung.

All squads will complete their second stint on Saturday and their medals will be presented on Sunday. Medals were presented today to the Doubles Champions and runners-up. Salman Abdula Abdughani, President of the Qatar Bowling Federation and recently elected Vice-President of the ABF Western Region, presented the medals to the women winners, team managers and federations. Jaffar Gassab, President of the Bahrain Bowling Association and recently elected Executive Committee member of the ABF presented the souvenirs.

The Men champions received their medals from Sidney Tung, ABF Vice-President for Southeast Asia and General Secretary of the Malaysian Tenpin Bowling Congress. Souvenirs came from Nostratowlah Jafarian, Vice-President of Iran Bowling and Billiards Federation.

Story and photos by Keith Hale, ABF Media Co-ordinator for the Championship.