19th September, Yancheng: China A led the Women's Team of 5 first block preliminaries of the 28th East Asian Tenpin Bowling Championships by a comfortable 180 pins margin while Korea topped the Men's division with a lead of 96 pins.

Fang Yuanyuan, Peng Rui, Zhang yuhong, Kong Min and Li Qing got off the first block brilliantly with 1008 to lead Korea's Choi Hyeon Ji, Kim Chae Won, Hong Hyeon Jeong, Lee Hyeon Gyung and Han Jin A by 18 pins.

Trios gold medallists, Wang Ting-Wen, Yang Hao-Ting and Wang Ya-Ting teamed up with Wang Yu-Huei and Li Shiau-Ping knocked down only 897 to stay in third place. Another strong game of 1058 in the second saw the Chinese quintet stretching their lead to 128 pins.

Both Korea and Chinese Taipei were unable to response and was content to remain in second and third after adding 948 and 925 respectively in their second game. China A closed out the block with 938 to lead with 3004, 180 pins ahead of their arch-rival Korea, who settled for second with 2824.

Meanwhile in the men's division, the strong Korean quintet of Lee Won Seok, Jo Young Bin, Lee Jung Soo, Han Jae Hyeon and Oh Jin Won took the early lead with a superb 1044 in their opening game. Hong Kong's James Lui, Boco Wong, Oscar Poon, Jimmy Cheung and Ernest Kwok was second, just 4 pins adrift.

China A's Xu Chen, Cai Qilin, Cai Yangxin, Wang Zhiyong and Qi Wankang posted a respectable 1028 to stay in third ahead of Chinese Taipei's Shen Ying-Te, Tsang Hung-En, Lin Hsin-Feng, Chen Chia-Hsing and Lin Pai-Feng in fourth with 1010.

The fancied Korean added another sizzling 1127 in the second game to draw clear of the pack by 110 pins. The Taiwanese shot 1051 to take over second spot as Hong Kong managed only 963 to slip down to third. China A was fourth just 17 pins further away.

Korea eased off with 984 in their third game to end the block in the lead with 3155. Chinese Taipei finished second with 3059, 96 pins behind the Koreans. China A snatched third spot with 2996 while Hong Kong dropped to fourth with 2956.