24th October, Cairo: American, Dino Castillo and Malaysian Shalin Zulkifli captured the Sinai International Open Bowling Championship men's and women's Masters titles which concluded at International Bowling Centre.

The 3rd-seed American upset the favourite and top-seed, Ahmed Shaheen of Qatar in the final stepladder match 246-174 to snatch the title. Castillo scored a total of 4971 to Ahmed's 5300 in the round-robin finals earlier.

The 32 year-old had earlier knocked out former World Cup champion, Tore Torgersen 223-205 in the second match before challenging Shaheen for the title.

Castillo had earlier took the men's first stepladder match defeating 4th-seed and local hopeful, Tarek Helmy of Egypt just by one pin with 210-209. Shaheen settled for second with Torgersen in 3rd while Tarek Helmy took 4th spot.

In the women's division, Malaysia's Shalin Zulkifli took the title after defeating teammate Wendy Chai 221-204. The win was the World Championship Team Gold medalist third title this year after she captured the AVIVA ABT Malaysia and Philippines leg.

Wendy settled for second despite ousting Sweden's Linda Haguland in the second match 237-164. In the women's first stepladder match between 3rd-seed Haguland and 4th-seed Choy Poh Lai from Malaysia, Haguland had the upperhand to knock off Choy 197-177 before going down to Wendy.

Haguland finished third while Choy Poh Lai ended up with a good 4th position.

Photos courtesy of MTBC.

23rd October, Cairo: Qatar's Ahmed Shaheen showed a clean pair of heels to lead comfortably by 77 pins in the Men's 1st Block Masters finals of the Sinai International Open Bowling Championship at International Bowling Centre.

The 1999 AMF World Cup champion, Ahmed Shaheen was awesome from the word "Go" to kick off the 1st block finals with 241. He then had lines of 210, 223, 217, 258, 223, 212 and 225 for a total of 1809 averaging 226.13 to lead the field of 36 bowlers into the second block. In second spot was 2003 World Championship Trios Gold medalist, Dino Castillo of USA with 1732 and closely followed by World Championship Gold medalist, Tore Torgersen from Norway in 3rd with 1727.

Shaheen, who also won the 1999 World Championship Masters Gold, will be hoping to capture the title to erase his disappointment in this year's World Championship, which he failed to win a medal.

The Malaysian pair of Azidi Ameran and Zulmazran Zulkifli kept themselves in contention for the title by finishing 4th and 5th with 1701 and 1699 respectively.

The men will continue their second block of 8 games tomorrow (Friday 24th October) and the top 8 after 16 games will make the cut for the round-robin finals on Sunday, 25th October.

Photos courtesy of MTBC.

23rd October, Cairo: Indonesia Open champion, Kirsten Penny from England topped the Women's 1st Block Masters finals of the Sinai International Open Bowling Championship at International Bowling Centre.

The 27 year-old from Stevenage, England topped a field of 23 women bowlers with a total score of 1714, just 21 pins ahead of three-times Asian Ranked No. 1, Shalin Zulkifli who totalled 1693. Kirsten, who has already won three titles in Asia - Bahrain Open, Thailand Open and the Indonesia Open last month, hopes to add another title to her very successful year.

Twice Singapore Open champion, Wendy Chai from Malaysia finished 3rd almost a hundred pins away on 1610 while Sweden's Linda Haguland took 4th spot with 1591. World Championship Team Gold medalist, Choy Poh Lai was placed 5th with 1556.

Egyptian women Hala Sherawy 1492), Lama Elsherkawy (1477)and Amal Bakr (1403) finished 6th to 8th while Randa Kedess (JOR-1396) and Rose Solzman (PHI-1381) completed the top 10.

The men are playing their 1st block finals at press time. The women will continue their second block of 8 games tomorrow (Friday 24th October) and the top 8 after 16 games will make the cut for the round-robin finals on Sunday, 25th October.

Photos courtesy of MTBC.

22nd October, Cairo: Malaysia's Shalin Zulkifli and Qatar's Youssef Elgaber topped the Women's and Men's Open Masters qualifying table of the Sinai International Open Bowling Championship underway at International Bowling Centre.

Fresh from her finishing in the top 6 of the AMF Bowling World Cup in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Shalin recorded lines of 224, 192, 256, 211, 215 and 188 to total 1286 for a lead of 16 pins over second-place qualifier, Loly Ly from China who downed 1270.

Shalin's teammate and twice Singapore Open champion, Wendy Chai took 3rd spot with 1270 while 1st Indonesia Open champion, Kirsten Penny from England was 4th with 1247.

1st runner-up of the Indonesia Open, Choy Poh Lai finished a creditable 5th with 1158 while Hala Sherawy (EGY-1146), Lama Elsherkawy (EGY-1107), Hala Khafagy (EGY-1100), Randa Kedess ((JOR-1082) and Loloy (CHN-1077) completed the top 10 from 6th to 10th respectively.

In the men's division, Qatar dominated by taking the top three spots. Leading the pack was Youssef Elgabar with a score of 1402 followed by fellow countrymen, Khalifa Khaled in second with 1394 while former World Cup champion, Ahmed Shaheen completing the top three with 1378.

World Championship Trios Gold medalist, Dino Castillo of USA finished 4th with 1373 in front of another former World Cup champion, Tore Torgersen from Norway in 5th with 1358. Qatar's Abdulla Al-Qattan occupied 6th spot with 1339 and Malaysia's Jonathan Lim in 7th place with 1328.

Malaysia's Zulmazran Zulkifli scored the first perfect game of the championship on the last game of his qualifying round but only totalled a lowly 1273 and finished 14th.

The top 30 overseas and top 6 local men together with the top 20 overseas and top 4 local women will qualify for the Masters Finals to be played over two stages of 8 games each. The top 8 at the end of the Stage 1 and 2 will make the cut for the round-robin finals on Sunday, 25th October.

Photos courtesy of MTBC.