20th April, Petaling Jaya: Two-time Youth Open champion, Ethan Damien Goh emerged as Men's Open Masters champion of the 43rd Malaysian International Open Bowling Championships while 2024 PWBA Bowler of the Year, Sin Li Jane won the Women's crown for the second time.

Both top-seed, Goh and winner of the semi-finals match, Muhammad Hafiz Zainuddin started off the title match with two strikes-in-a-row. Goh added another double in the third and fourth frames as Hafiz failed to match his opponent's strides.

Goh then encountered a spilt in the fifth frame, allowing Hafiz to narrow the gap. But Hafiz made a costly mistake by not picking up a single-pin spare. Although Goh was also met with a split in the eighth frame, Goh struck in the ninth and another double in the 10th frame to seal victory with 220 against Hafiz's 180.

Hafiz had earlier ousted second-seed, Luke Doyle of Australia, 219-182 to earn a crack at the title for the second time after he won it last year. Goh pocketed a whopping RM50,000 (appro. US$11,400) as champion. Hafiz and Doyle earned RM25,000 and RM13,000 respectively as first and second runners-up.

Meanwhile, top-seed, Sin Li Jane denied second-seed, New Hui Fen her first Malaysian Open title after defeating the Singaporean, 222-198 in the Women's Open title match. There was nothing separating the duo after three frames.

New downed three consecutive strikes from frame 4 and Sin responded with four strikes-in-a-row from frame 5. New suffered a big split in the eighth frame allowing the Malaysian to cruise to a convincing victory. New had earlier dispatched third-seed, Adelia Nur Binti Irwan Syazalee of Malaysia, 226-206 to face Sin in the final.

Sin picked up the top prize of RM30,000 (approx. US$6,800) as champion. New and Adelia earned RM20,000 and RM10,000 respectively as first and second runners-up.

In the 8-game Round 1 roll-off earlier, Singaporeans were tussling for the lead but Sin took over the running and never looked back to win the round with 1825 and earning top-seed. New finished second with 1781 while Adelia took third spot with 1765.