27th July, Shanghai: Two-hander, Lan Shao-Kang of Chinese Taipei cruised to a comfortable lead in the third and final squad of the qualifying rounds at the 2019 Storm U22 China International Youth Bowling Championships on Saturday evening.

Lan, who was third in the first block after four games, had a brilliant start with 267 in the fifth game to take over the lead from overnight leader and compatriot, Liao Li-Yang. A third Taiwanese, Chen Chia-Hsing dropped to third.

The 16-year-old Lan added 224 and 214 in his next two games to remain in the lead and extending his lead from 19 pins to 49. Hazeem Azriel of Sunway Megalanes, Malaysia posted 256 and 202 to take over second spot while Liao and Macau's Chiu Hou Leong shared third position.

The leader ended the qualifying rounds with a strong 246 and a 951 series to comfortably take the Squad C with an 8-game total of 1849. A second Malaysian, Ahmad Azriq stormed home to snatch second position with 1771, 78 pins adrift.

Squad A leader, Dylan Teoh Zi Jun of Singapore Sports School topped the qualifying rounds with 1895 followed by China's Jeremy Breitenstein in second with 1894.

Squad B leader, Yuma Haraguchi of Japan remained third with 1891 ahead of two Singapore youths, Javier Lim and Marcus Tan tieing fourth position with 1872. Squad C leader, Lan ended up in seventh behind Hong Kong's Boco Wong in sixth.

The cut in 44th position to qualify for the finals went to 2017 Asian School triple gold medallist and last week's 45th Hong Kong Open Women's Open Masters third runner-up, Wong Son Ian of Macau with 1657. Hong Kong's Danny Lee missed the cut by 13 pins ending up in 45th position.

The finalists will bowl four games with pins carried forward from the qualifying rounds in the finals tomorrow. The top 16 with the highest pinfalls at the end of the finals will advance to the best-of-three Round of 16 knockout matches.

The winners will advance to the quarter-finals, again in the best-of-three knockout matches. The quarter-finals winners will then proceed to the semi-finals and subsequently the final, again in the best-of-three knockout matches to determine the champion. The top 3 winners will be awarded trophies with attractive cash prizes.