6th September, Bangkok: Annop Arromsaranon of Thailand and Jazreel Tan of Singapore took over the lead of the Men's and Women's Open qualifying standings at the 46th MWA-Singha Thailand International Open after the second block.

Overnight leader, Michael Mak of Hong Kong had a poor second block in Squad A and opened up a chance for the other front runners to take over top spot. Malaysia's Muhd Nur Aiman topped Squad C to take over the lead after his second block with 2349.

Arromsaranon, bowling in the final squad of the day, had a moderate start with 223 in his opening game and stumbled to a poor 182 to slip out of contention allowing newly-crowned Youth 21 & Under champion, Le Minh Duc of Vietnam to take over the running.

However, the Thai bounced back with back-to-back 236 before ending with a stunning 279 in the final game to firm up top position with 2401. Park Sang Jin of Korea National Sports University, also ended well with 279 to clinch second position with 2395. The two-hander Vietnamese settled for third position with 2361.

Meanhwile, overnight Women's Open leader, Colleen Pee of Singapore topped Squad D with 2185 but was beaten by Squad C winner and team-mate, Jazreel Tan, who amassed 2262 to become the new overall leader.

A third Singaporean, Shayna Ng, who finished second to Tan, occupied third position overall with 2162. 21st Asian Junior All-Events gold medallist, Ramita Sarntong led compatriots, Chawakorn Wutti and Thanakorn Wutti to take up the top three local qualifying positions with 1893, 1844 and 1835 respectively.

Sin dropped to seventh position overall to lead the mixed pool but the Malaysian is only two pins from third-place Ng and 25 pins from second-place Pee. The cut in 22nd position went to Hong Kong's Chan Shuk Han averaging 193.8.

The bowlers will end the qualifying rounds with the third block of five games tomorrow. Round 2 finals has been pushed back by one hour and will now be contested at 11.00am local time on September 8.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Bangkok, Thailand.