13th November, K.Lumpur: Chinese Taipei's Ho Chao-Wen and Huang Tzu-Hsuan captured the Mixed Doubles Gold medal as Korea emerged overall champions in the 2nd Asian Tenpin Bowling Championship for the Blind which concluded Sunday afternoon.

Ho Chao-Wen and Huang Tzu-Hsuan took over the lead in the fifth game and shrugged off a comeback by the Malaysian to bag a second Gold medal for Chinese Taipei with a total score of 1992.

Malaysia's Choo Kam Chan, who won the Men B2 Singles Gold yesterday, partnered Kuizham Kuharun to set a cracking pace for the lead after the first game. The duo held on to the lead until they were overcome by the Chinese Taipei's pair. Choo and Kuizham settled for the Silver medal with 1976, just 16 pins adrift.

"Although we have won three Gold medals, we will need to improve our game a lot if we want to be successful in the World Championship in Korea next year," said coach Huang Ching-Hsing, who is also the proud father of Tzu-Hsuan. "Our players were given stiff competition by the Malaysians but we came off better.

Japan's Tomomasa and Toru Mori took home the Bronze medal with a a total of 1890 while Women B1 Singles Gold medalist and her partner, Kim Nam-Hun missed the medal to finish fourth with 1686.

The mixed doubles event was contested with a B1 category bowler partnering either a B2 or B3 category bowler or two B2 bowlers in a pair. All Events medals were also awarded to both the men and the women division for all the three categories.

Korea emerged as overall champions with 5 Gold, 6 Silver, 2 Bronze medals and four 4th placings on 51 points folowed by Japan in second with 3 Gold, 3 SIlver, 4 Bronze medals and a 4th placing for 33 points. Chinese Taipei finished third with 3 Gold, 4 Bronze medals and three 4th placings on 26 points.

A total of 52 bowlers and 29 officials took part in this 2nd edition of Asian Tenpin Bowling CHapionship for the Blind for which Malaysia hosted. Japan hosted the first championship in 2003. Korea will host the World Championship for the Blind next year in April while Chinese Taipei will play host for the third championship in 2007.

Photos by Terence Yaw, MTBC.

12th November, K.Lumpur: Lee Young-Tae gave Korea its second Gold medal of the 2nd Asian Tenpin Bowling Championship for the Blind after finishing top of Men's B3 Singles while Morisawa Akiko brought home Japan's first.

Four Gold medalist in the World Championship for the Blind 2004, Bak Heui-Suk, had earlier topped Squad A of the Women's B1 Singles and held on to win Korea's first Gold. Lee impressed with 190, 172, 191, 189 and 192 in his first 5 games and despite a lowly 153 in his final and sixth game, it did not mattered as it secured Korea's second.

The 51-year-old totalled 1087, 94 pins clear of Silver medalist and local hopeful, Soo Choon Hung of Malaysia, who shot 993. Japan's Yoshinori Yamamoto came home for the Bronze medal with 946.

"This is my first Asian championship and I'm glad I was able to give Korea the Gold medal," said the delighted 51-year-old head masseur from Daegu City. "Now I hope to keep my form and win more medals.

Meanwhile, Akiko Morisawa of Japan won her back-to-back Singles Gold when she chalked up 859 in the Women's B3 division. Morisawa had won the same event when she competed in the 2003 championship in Tokyo.

"In Tokyo, I won two Gold medals from the Singles and All Events so I hope to acheive the same if not better results this time," said the 37-year-old public servant from Tokyo through his team manager. "I didn't expect to win after I saw the Koreans practice yesterday but I'm glad to have done so.

Korea's Cho Young-Hwa settled for the Silver medal with 854, just 5 pins off the pace while Wendy Wong of Singapore won the Bronze medal with 830. However, Singapore won their first-ever Gold medal when Squad A leader, Yong Phen Chong triumphed in the Men's B1 Singles event.

Seo Kwan-Soo of Korea and Yoshihisa Ojima of Japan took the Silver and Bronze medal. Likewise, Tamami Emura of Japan and Nam Sang-Im of Korea also won the Silver and Bronze medal in the Women's B1 Singles event.

Photos by Terence Yaw, MTBC.

12th November, K.Lumpur: Local favorite, Choo Kam Chan of Malaysia and Chiu Hui-Min of Chinese Taipei struck the first Gold medals of the 2nd Asian Tenpin Bowling Championship for the Blind at Pyramid Megalanes.

Choo, who won a Gold medal in the 2003 championship in Toyko, performed true to his form to bag Malaysia's first Gold medal when he chalked up 1046 in the 6-game B2 division Singles event. The champion led from start to finish with lines of 184, 203, 182, 167, 149 and 161 to end the event with a 15 pin margin.

"I'm releived to have delivered the first Gold medal for my country," said the champion. "I was a bit worried when I got two low games in the fifth and sixth game but my coach pushed me and reminded to stay focus.

Japan's Toru Mori settled for the Silver medal with a total of 1031 while Chinese Taipei's Ho Chao-Wen took home the Bronze medal with 1013. Team-mate, Huang Tzu-Hsuan finished fourth with 999 pinfalls.

Chinese Taipei scored their first Gold when debutant, Chiu Hui-Min romped home a comfortable winner in the Women's B2 division Singles event. The 25-year-old student at Tainan Women's Arts & Technology Institute, knocked down 812 total, 44 pins ahead of her nearest opponent. Korea's Kim Myoung-Ja took home the Silver medal.

"I never expected to win in my debut especially there are so many better bowlers," said the champion. "I'm grateful to my manager, Huang Ching-Hsing for giving me an opportunity to compete here.

"Coming in second was never in my mind when I started this morning and I'm so happy to win the Silver," said 37-year-old masseur student from Daegu City.

Chinese Taipei's Jen Chih-Jung finished third for the Bronze medal with 747 while Korea's Kim Mi-Jung could only manage a fourth-place finish with 725. The second squad will be contested in the afternoon for B1 and B3 division.

Photos by Terence Yaw, MTBC.

12th November, K.Lumpur: Korea's Bak Heui-Suk and Singapore's Yong Phen Chong lead by comfortable margins in Singles Squad A of the B1 division as the 2nd Asian Tenpin Bowling Championship for the Blind got underway Saturday morning.

Bak, four Gold medalist in the 2004 World Championship in Orlando, Florida, was simply too good for the field as she cruised to a 32 pin lead over her nearest rival. The 37-year-old mother of two, posted lines of 115, 107, 106, 121, 141 and 103 for a 6-game total of 693. The leader also bagged a Singles and All Events Gold medals in the 2003 Asian Championship in Tokyo.

"I'm so happy that I can repeat the form I showed in last year's world championship," said Bak, who works as a masseur in Seoul. "I hope that my score will be good enough to win a Gold medal for my country.

Japan's Emura Tamami finished second with 661 with Chinese Taipei's Chu Ya-Chuan in a distant third on 511 followed by Malaysia's Loh Moi Moi in fourth.

Meanwhile, Singapore's Yong Phen Chong took an early lead in the Men's B1 division with a 6-game total of 721. The 51-year-old led the field by a comfortable margin of 147 pins ahead of Thailand's Krietkongtawee K. in second with 574 and Tack No-Gyun in third with 545.

Yong, who was injured in an accident while in a Singapore arm forces field excercise, became blind in 1969. He now works for the Ministry of Defence as a desk clerk and took up the game four years ago since the introduction of guard rails.

"I'm glad to have taken up the game of bowling since 2000 and also been able to achieve my target so far," said Yong, who won two Bronze medals in Toyko.

Squad B will be played in the afternoon at the end of which the combined squads will determine the winners in the B1 division.

Photos by Terence Yaw, MTBC.

11th November, K.Lumpur: Visually handicapped Asian bowlers will face exciting challenge as the 2nd Asian Tenpin Bowling Championship for the Blind officially opened Friday afternoon at Pyramid Megalanes.

A total of 52 bowlers and 29 officials from seven Asian countries participated in the march past at the Pyramid Megalanes during the official opening ceremony, graced by the Guest of Honor, Dr Ramlan bin Aziz, Director General of the National Sports Council, Malaysia.

Present at the opeing were Mr Sidney Tung, Secretary General of MTBC, Encik Hadi Abdullah, Honorary Treasurer of the National Council for the Blind, Malaysia, Mr Toshiaki Aomatsu, President of Japan Bowling Congress for the Blind, Mr Andrew Chew, President, Blind Sports Association of Singapore, Tuan Haji Mohd Nazari Haji Othman, Secretary General for the Society of the Blind, Malaysia along with distinguished guests, sponsors and members of the press media.

Malaysia is hosting the second edition of the championship and organized by the National Council for the Blind, Malaysia and supported by Malaysian Tenpin Bowling Congress, which will take place for the next two days.

"Tenpin Bowling has always attracted many young aspiring athlete into the sport based on Malaysia's successes in the international arena and I'm happy to note that the sport has also attracted the visually handicapped," said Dr Ramlan in his opening address.

There are three categories of bowlers - totally blind under B1 category, partially blind with visual acuity below 2/60 under B2 category, and those who have visual acuity above 2/60 up to visual acuity 6/60 will be classified under B3.

"In my 20 years of organizing many international championships, I'm more exicited with this special championship as it proved extremely challenging to cater for the blind," said Mr Sidney Tung. "With adequate publicity of this championship, we hope to see more handicapped athlete taking to the sport," added Mr Tung.

Competition will commence Saturday morning with the Singles event over 6 games for men and women division of the B1, B2 and B3 categories. Six gold medal will be at stake. On the day 2, the Doubles event will be held for mixed divisions - B1 paring with B2 or B3 and B2/B2 for just the one gold medal.

The total of 12 games completed by each bowler will provide an All Events total which will allow the participating countries to win another 6 gold medals.

For the first time, as host, Malaysia will give out a special Overall Champions trophy to the country with the most points based on medals won - 5 for Gold, 3 for Silver, 2 for Bronze and 1 for a fourth placng.

Photos by Terence Yaw, MTBC.