18th August, Bangkok: Two gold medallist and Chinese Taipei's, Lan Shao-Kang led team-mate, Cheng Shao-Hua to a one-three finish in the Boy's Masters first block finals of the 21st Asian Junior Tempin Bowling Championships split by Malaysia's Syabil-Azam Syamsul-Azam in second.

Team bronze medallist, Mathieu Louis of SIngapore B defeated sole Qatari finalist, Bader Al-Sada, 263-211 in the opening match to take the lead, 37 pins ahead of Singles gold medallist, Shaqeem Izwan Teh, who beat his team-mate, Izz Naqiuddin Putera Islahuddin, 226-205 for second.

But Louis lost his second match allowing Lan to move into the lead after the 17-year-old Taiwanese won his second with 247. The Singaporean recovered with a win in his third match while Lan also won his to draw level with 724 each.

Cheng, moved up into third spot with victories in the second and third matches after his lost in the first. Louis won his next two matches with 227 and 214 to firm up his lead. Lan also had two wins but with lower scores to take up second spot, 13 pins behind.

The new leader then stumbled to a loss in the sixth match with 165 while Lan comfortably won his with 245 to regain the lead. Syabil-Azwan, meanwhile took over second spot with wins in the fifth and sixth matches with big scores.

When the Taiwanese lost his seventh match, the Malaysian managed to reduce the gap from 48 pins to just three, going into the final match of the first block. Louis could not keep pace with the front-runners and continued to slide down the field.

Lan sealed top spot with a big win in the last match with 256 and ending the first block with a total of 1885, from seven wins. Syabil-Azwan settled for second with 1849 on just four wins. Cheng had back-to-back 238s to win his two last matches for a total 0f 1793 in third position.

Airel Amri Suhaimi of Malaysia and early pace-setter, Louis rounded out the top five with 1777 and 1776 rrespectively. The boys will return tomorrow for their second block in the afternoon. The top 3 based on their two blocks total will advance to the stepladder shootout finals.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Bangkok, Thailand.