23rd August, Palembang: First block leader, Shoga Wada, Tomoyuki Sasaki and Shusako Asato successfully defended the title they won four years ago with a convincing victory in the Men's Trios event of the 18th Asian Games Palembang 2018.

Armed with a a lead of 88 pins from the first block of 3 games contested earlier in the day, the Japanese trio downed 731 in the fourth game to stretch their lead to 161 pins. Indonesia's Ryan Lalisang, Billy Muhammad Ismail and Hardy Rachmadian rolled a sizzling 763 to move into second position.

Malaysia's second trio of Timmy Tan, Ahmad Muaz and Muhd Rafiq Ismail posted 752 to leapfrog into third spot behind the Indonesia. Malaysia's first trio of Adrian Ang, Muhd Syafiq Ridhwan and Alex Liew stumbled to a lowly 658 and dropped out of contention.

Singapore's trio of Alex Chong, Darren Ong and Muhd Jaris Goh slipped down to fourth after a poor 652. Chinese Taipei's Wu Hao-Ming, Lin Pai-Feng and Hsieh Chin-Liang posted 700 to move into fifth position.

The battle for bronze was down to the wire amongst Singapore, Korea, Chinese Taipei and Indonesia battling it out and it came down to the last frame. Chong and Muhd Jaris struck in their final frame to end with 684 and clinched the bronze medal with 4226.

Indonesia ended strongly with 723 but fell short by 36 pins to miss out on the podium in fourth position with 4190. Chinese Taipei totaled 4183 to finish fifth while Korea slipped down to sixth with 4182.

Rolling a 300 in the third game of the Trios first block and s 6-game total of 1545, Shusaku Asato led of the All-Events standings. Takayu Miyazawa totaled 1508 to finish 37 pins behind his team-mate while Darren Ong of Singapore took third spot with 1484.

The top 16 with the highest pinfalls after the second event of the Team of Six is completed will qualify for the Masters Finals. However, only two per NOC are eligible to qualify for the Masters Finals which is scheduled for August 26 and 27.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Palembang, Indonesia.