17th September, Yancheng: Singles gold and bronze medallists, Lee Won Seok and Oh Jin Won easily topped the Men's Doubles Squad A preliminaries of the 28th East Asian Tenpin Bowling Championships ahead of China A1's Wang Zhihong and Qi Wankang in second.

The first Korean pair of Jo Young Bin and Han Jae Hyeon had a better start with 481 in their opening game to lead their compatriots, Lee and Oh by 34 pins. China A1's second pair of Cai Qilin and Chen Jiaming rolled 410 for third spot.

Jo and Han extended their lead slightly to 45 pins after knocking down 423 as Lee and Oh managed only 412. DPR Korea's first pair of Sol Kum Song and Ham Hyon Chol showed promise when they were placed third.

The leader inched further away after a third game of 430. The other Korean pair continued to trail their team-mates in second, 53 pins adrift. DPR Korea remained in third while a first China A1 pair of Wang and Qi made progress to take up fourth.

Lee and Oh added a stunning 517 in the fifth game to take over the lead and moving 124 pins away from the pace-setter. China A1 and Chinese Taipei 1 remained in third and fourth. The Korean leader ended the preliminaries with 401 for a total of 2617.

China A1 snatched second spot with 2472 while Korea 1 settled for third position with 2452. Chinese Taipei 1 rounded up the top 4 with 2387. Squad B will take to the lanes for their preliminaries and the top 4 from the combined scores will qualify for the semi-finals.

The topseed will face the fourth-seed in the first semi-finals match while the second-seed will meet the third-seed in the other semi. The winners will meet in the final match for the gold medal while the losing semi-finalists will be awarded a bronze medal each.

Competition will resume tomorrow with the Women's Trios first block of 3 games in the morning and the Men's Trios first block of 3 games in the afternoon. The women will complete their second block later in the evening while the men will complete their second block on September 19.