23rd October, Manila: 2016 Thailand Open Youth Under-21 champion, Tun Ameerul Al-Hakim took a convincing victory in the Boy's Singles event to win Malaysia's first gold medal at the 19th Asian Tenpin Bowling Championships.

Hometown boy, Praise Gahol took a surprise lead with 247 in his opening game, five pins ahead of 2017 Macau Open Graded champion, Park Geon Ha of Korea and Takumi Hagasaki of Japan, a close third. Despite adding 193 in the second game, the Filipino was unable to hang on to the lead.

Tun Ameerul, who shot 214 in his first game, added a strong game of 247 to leapfrog into the lead as Gahol slipped down to second, 21 pins adrift. Hagasaki suffered a poor 164 for Park to take up third. The Malaysian scorched the lanes with a stunning 268 to stretch his lead to 80 pins, ahead of the Korean in second. Chinese Taipei's Liao Li-Yang made grounds to take up third spot.

Tun Ameerul ended with another superb game of 228 to seal victory with 1370 for the gold. Hagasaki claimed the silver with 1298. 2016 PBA-WBT Bahrain Open champion, Ahmed Al-Awadhi of Bahrain stromed home with 235 and 251 in his last two games to snatch the bronze medal with 1287.

Liao missed the podium by 20 pins to settle for fourth position with 1267 while Park rounded out the top five with 1234. Competition will shift to the Doubles event tomorrow with the boys contesting in the morning and the girls in the afternoon. The Team of Four will be held over two blocks of three games each on October 25 and 26.

The top 16 boys and top 16 girls based on the All Events standings (18 games total) will qualify for the Round-Robin Matchplay Masters finals over two blocks on October 27 and 28. The top 3 boys and top 3 girls will proceed to the Stepladder finals.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Manila.