2nd November, Singapore: Singapore's Evelyn Chan and crowd-favourite Dino Castillo gave 600 plus local fans plenty to cheer on the final day of the 36th Singapore Open with their heartwarming performances at Victor's Superbowl.

Chan, 27, confidently disposed of teammate Jennifer Tan 204-193 to win her first international title, while Asian Games champion Ong who finished sixth in the 2nd Block Masters finals, climbed up the stepladder twice and pushed World Championship Trios Gold medalist, Dino Castillo to two games, before settling for the $8,000 runner-up cheque.

Women's champion Chan, who injured her lower back in Thursday's Masters qualifiers, looked in control throughout the day. She started the morning's second block of 8 games in the Masters finals with a 109pin lead and finished her series with a 79 pins margin. In the stepladder final against teammate Tan, Chan was never troubled despite playing with a heavily strapped back.

"No doubt, this was only my third step-ladder final," said Chan, who is only in

her first full season on the Singapore national team. "But I'm playing on home ground and in front of the home fans, so I only had to worry about my bowling and not the crowd. Although I was away from serious competitive bowling for the last five years, I had been training on my own with Jack Wong. I also have to thank my Chinese physician who helped me with my back injury."

Chan is the first Singaporean to lift the women's title since Jesmine Ho in 1998 and her well-deserved win makes her $5,000 richer. Her win was all the more significant as one-third of the top 30 women Masters qualifiers were either current or former World Champions. World Championships runner-up and current Asian number one Liz Clutario only managed to finish sixth, while world trios champions like Liza Del Rosario and Cecilia Yap were 10th and 16th respectively. World doubles champion Kirsten Penny finished a poor 26th, Asian Games champion Shalin Zukifli was only 18th position, while and two-time defending champion Wendy Chai was a distant 22nd.

Singapore bowling captain Ong nearly become the first Singaporean to win the men's title since 1988. He sneaked into the stepladder finals in sixth position, but he managed a narrow win over Andrew Frawley (173) and Tom Hahl (152) with a 178 showing to move up the step-ladder. Roared on by the supportive home crowd, Ong (202) managed to win another tight battle in the next match against Korea's Lee Sung Il (182) and Taiwanese Kao Hai Yuan (193).

In the nailing final, Ong started game one with a 1-3-7 split and trailed throughout to finish with a 196. Castillo needed just a spare on the tenth frame to seal victory, but a disastrous 2-10 split left him with a frustrating 193 and the match went into a second game decider. With the boisterous crowd edging him on, Ong went in for the kill and was up 118-99 halfway through the second game. But a disastrous 4-7-10 split on frame 8 ended Ong's run and Castillo ended the match with a turkey to seal the victory 228-183.

"I felt a bit down after losing the first game," said Castillo who walked away with a $20,000 winners cheque on his first visit to Singapore. "I thought I hit a good shot in the last frame in game one, but I must have caught an oil spot. My friends really kept me going in the second game and it's never easy playing against the hometown favourite."

"Finishing second is like winning," said Ong, who last victory came exactly a year ago at this same bowling center. "There was really nothing much for lefties today and I was the top lefthander in this tournament. I finished second five times before and that was quite a good run for me, so I really don't mind finishing second."

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Media released by Octagon RTA, the Event Communications Consultants for the 36th Singapore Open.