3rd July, Kaohsiung: 2018 PBA-World Bowling Tour Busan Cup champion, Annop Arromsaranon of Thailand took an early lead in the Men's Open Masters qualifying standings of the 18th Kaohsiung International Open Bowling Championships underway at Southern Bowling Centre.

Annop posted a 3-game series of 661 in his first attempt after coming off as third runner-up in the ABF Tour Hong Kong leg two days ago. The Thai added 660 in his second attempt to take an early lead with 1321.

Three Hong Kong national keglers trailed Annop with Mike Chan in second with 1311, just 10 pins adrift and James Lui in third with 1275. The top 3 overseas qualifiers will earn a bye and automatically advance to the Men's Open Round 2 finals.

Jimmy Chueng finished fourth with 1246 while India's Girish Ashok Gaba completed the top 5 with 1229. In the local pool, 2018 ABF Tour Thailand leg champion, Lin Pai-Feng of Chinese Taipei posted 707 and 640 to lead the local standings with 1347.

Chen Hsin-An finished 14 pins behind in second with 1323 followed by Fang Chih-Nan in third position with 1321. The top 3 local qualifiers will earn a bye and automatically advance to the Men's Open Round 2 finals. 2017 World Championships All Events gold medallist, Wu Hao-Ming missed the top bracket by 9 pins to take up fourth with 1302.

Wu Cheng-Hsun of Chinese Taipei headed the mixed pool with 1251 while the cut in 11th position went to Tsai Ying-Hao with 1212. Qualifiers positioned 4 to 12 in the overseas pool, qualifiers positioned 4 to 12 in the local pool, qualifiers position 1 to 11 in the mixed pool together with the defending champion plus the top 3 qualifiers from the one-game desperado squad (total 33) will contest Round 1 Finals on July 6 over 8 games.

The top 18 finishers with the highest pinfall at the end of Round 1 finals will advance to Round 2 finals on July 7 joined by the top 3 local and top 3 overseas seeded qualifiers from the general standings for another 8 games from scratch. The top 6 with the highest pinfall at the end of Round 2 finals will proceed to the Stepladder Shootout finals. The champion will take home the top prize of NT$250,000 (approx. US$8,000) from a total prize fund of US$45,000.

Meanwhile, last week's ABF Tour Hong Kong leg third runner-up, Pan Yu-Fen of Chinese Taipei ammased a total of 1338 from two best 3-games series of 692 and 646 to lead the Ladies' Open division and the local pool.

Last year's defending champion, Huang Chiung-Yao finished in a distant second with 1251 while Wang Ting-Wen took third spot with 1246. The top 3 local qualifiers will earn a bye and automatically advance to the Men's Open Round 2 finals as well.

2018 World Championships Singles bronze medallist, Chan Shuk Han of Hong Kong topped the overseas pool with a moderate 1158. Filomena Choi of Macau finished second with 1061 while 2013 Asia Youth All Events bronze medalloist, Joan Cheng took third spot with 1045.

The top 3 overseas qualifiers will earn a bye and automatically advance to the Men's Open Round 2 finals. Qualifiers positioned 4 to 10 in the overseas pool, qualifiers positioned 4 to 10 in the local pool, qualifiers position 1 to 9 in the mixed pool together with the defending champion (total 24) will contest Round 1 Finals on July 6 over 8 games.

The top 16 finishers with the highest pinfall at the end of Round 1 finals will advance to Round 2 finals on July 7 joined by the top 3 local and top 3 overseas seeded qualifiers from the general standings for another 8 games from scratch.

The top 6 with the highest pinfall at the end of Round 2 finals will proceed to the Stepladder Shootout finals to determine the champion, who will take home the top prize of NT$80,000 (approx. US$2,600). The top 16 Asian men and top 16 Asian women from the Stepladder and Round 2 finals will also qualify for this year's final leg - ABF Tour Chinese Taipei 2018 which will be staged at the same bowling centre on July 8.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Koahsiung, Chinese Taipei.