19th December, Seberang Prai: 2012 champion and Malaysian National bowler, Syafiq Ridhwan rolled the tournament first 300 in his opening game and topped the overall qualifying standings after Block 1 of six games at the 49th Penang Pesta International Open Bowling Championships.

Ridhwan got off to a dream start when he rolled 12 consecutive strikes to register the first perfect 300 of the championships in his opening game. Local lass, Faten Najihah, another member of the Malaysian National squad did well with 269 and a 5-pin handicap to trail Ridhwan by 26 pins.

The pace-setter extended his lead slightly to 32 pins after following it up with 213 in the second game as Najihah returned with 202. Ridhwan added moderate games of 215 and 203 in his next two games before firing up 220 and 237 to end the block with 1388 for top spot.

Ridhar Rahman of Selangor, who took over second spot from Najihah after the third game, went on to finish second overall with 1332, thanks to a 48-pin handicap he received. Singapore's Benjamin Ang took third spot in the squad with 1324 but ended up in fifth overall.

Kim Ho Jin of Sehan University, Korea, who led the opening squad, settled for third position overall with 1324. Muhammad Amirrul Afif of Selangor, who was second to the Korean in Squad A, ended in fourth position with 1315.

Chan Jia Wei of Bowling Is Science, Singapore took sixth position with 1304 behind his compatriot, Hong while Malaysian National bowler, Gillian Lim, who was third in Squad A, finished seventh with 1302 making the top 7 totalling above the 1300-mark.

Najihah fizzled oout to end up in 12th position. National youth, Izz Naquddin Putera, Nur Amirah Auni of MMBC, Penang and newly-crowned National champion, Muhammad Syazirol rounded out the top 10.

The top 40 qualifiers in the overall standings after the second block of 6 games will qualify for the Masters Finals on December 21. The current cut at 40th position went to Singapore's Timothy Tham with 1236. Bowlers will resume with their second block of 6 games with Squad A commencing at 9.00am local time and Squad B at 2.00pm.