10th July, Kaohsiung: Newly-crowned 16th Chinese Taipei International Open champion, Michael Mak gave Hong Kong its first double titles after winning the Men's crown in the inaugural ABF Tour Chinese Taipei 2016 while debutant, Hsu Chun-Yi became the first Taiwanese to win the women's title on home soil.

Mak denied host country a double after brushing aside challenger and debutant, Hsu Chin-Tsai 267-222 in the men's final match and Hsu outclassed compatriot, Tsai Hsin-Yi, 244-199 in the all-Chinese Taipei women's final match for her first-ever tour title.

Both men started the final match with a double strike in the first two frames but Mak continued to down two more while Hsu managed only two spares and fell 23 pins behind. A 4-7-6-10 split by Mak in the fifth frame allowed Hsu to reduce the gap to just 12 pins.

But the Hong Kong national recovered with three additional strikes as the Taiwanese failed to roll strikes and just spared his next three frames. Adding a fourth strike in the ninth frame allowed Mak to shut out Hsu to win his second consecutive title in two days.

The champion averaged 253.5 over fourth matches en-route to his victory. He almost rolled the first 300 in the new World Bowling scoring system but missed the head pin in his final shot to beat Chen Wu-Chi of Chinese Taipei 287-233 in the second semi-final match.

Mak edged a second Taiwanese, Wang Chen-Hsiung 243-235 in the second round after winning the opening match, 217-182 against his first Taiwanese opponent, Hsu Yin-Chou.

The runner-up had to beat three fellow-countrymen to reach the finals. He first ousted second-seed, Wu Hao-Ming 222-201 in the first round and then Yeh Meng-Wei, 213-211 in the second round. He had another narrow victory over Chen Ying-Shen, 222-220 in the first semi-final match.

In the women's division, Hsu Chu-Yi reached the final after she defeated Chen Hsiu-Lan, 213-207 in the first women's semi-final match. She also trashed newly-crowned Chinese Taipei Open champion, Huang Chiung-Yao, 245-190 in Round 2.

Hsu gave her country a first double after Wang Ya-Ting won the Macau leg last month. The champion had a good start with a 231-204 victory over Filomena Choi of Macau in the opening round. The runner-up then beat Chi Yun-Fan, 224-200 in the second round and Wang Ting-Wen, 197-180 in the other semi-final.

Both the champions picked up the top prize of US$1,000 while the first runner-ups took home US$500 each. All the four losing semi-finalists earned with US$250 a piece.

The inaugural leg featured fourteen men from Chinese Taipei against two Hong Kong nationals. There were thirteen women from Chinese Taipei competiting against one women from Hong Kong and two from Macau.

Mr. Wu Fu-Lung, President of the Chinese Taipei Bowling Association presented the trophy and prizes to the women's winners while Ms. Vivien Lau, ABF Tour Committee Chairman and secretary general of World Bowling gave away the trophy and prizes to the men's winners.

The ABF Tour Chinese Taipei 2016 leg is the third of six legs to be staged in East Asia this year with the official partner, Alisports providing the prize money of US$4,000 for each leg. The next stop will be in Hong Kong, China on July 18.

For further information and details, please contact ABF Tour Committee at Tel: +852 2893 6039, Fax: +852 2893 6290; Email: hktbc@netvigator.com.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Kaohsiung.