14th August, Kaohsiung: Defending champion and PBA Tour winner, Annop Arromsaranon of Thailand took over the lead of the Men's Open Masters qualifying standings at the 19th Koahsiung International on Wednesday.

Arromsaranon, who trailed overnight leader, Joshua Chow of Hong Kong by nine pins yesterday, improved his lower 3-game series of 676 to 744 taking his 6-game tally to 1477 and became the new leader.

The national bowler, who became the second Thai to win an international PBA title, rolled 245, 257 and 242 for the 744 series. Chow settled for second with 1439 while Singapore's Muhd Danial Zheng Yi improved from fifth to earn third spot with 1418.

First perfect gamer, Chen Han of China got pushed out of the top bracket to take up fourth with 1402. In the local pool, Chen Kuan-Yeh remained the leader with 1476 followed by Chiu Po-Yang in second with 1403 and Jack Cheng in third with 1392.

Meanwhile, the top 3 highest local qualifiers remained unchanged with 2018 ABF Tour Chinese Taipei champion, Su Shu-Wen leading with 1368. Tsai Hsin-Yi and Chou Chia-Chen occupied second and third spots with 1335 and 1293 respectively.

Overnight leader and 2019 Hong Kong Open champion, Iliya Syamim of Singapore also retained her lead in the overseas pool with 1408. Choi Ae Rim of Team Kang Wondo, Haengseong City, Korea also remained in second with 1382.

2019 Asian School Singles gold and triple silver medallist, Arianne Tay of Singapore leapfrog from seventh to third with 1327. The top 3 highest overseas qualifiers and top 3 highest local qualifiers would earn a bye and automatically advance to Round 2 finals.

Overseas qualifiers positioned 4 to 10, local qualifiers positioned 4 to 10 and the top 10 qualifiers from the mixed pool will contest the 8-game Round 1 finals. The top 16 with the highest pinfalls at the end of Round 1 finals will advance to Round 2 joined by the six seeded qualifiers for another 8 games.