9th September, Kuching: Ahmad Azriq Izamuddin of Team Megalanes Juniors snatched victory in the position round match of the Classified Masters finals at the Sarawak International Open Bowling Championships 2019 for his first title.

Muhammad Aiman B. Azni set a cracking pace with 246 and 251 in his two opening games to lead Singapore's Hamid B. Kamin by 67 pins. Muhammad Razydan B. Ismail and Tsen Fan Yew also had a good start to take up third and fourth positions.

Aiman remained in the lead despite suffering a 164 setback in the third game. But when the leader posted another low game of 174 in the fourth game, Hamid took the opportunity to move ahead of Aiman with 202.

The Singaporean continued to lead the field after a 200 game in the fifth as others failed to make progress. Ahmad Azriq and Adri Wafiq B. Hussin were gradually moving up the field to take up second and third positions.

A superb 229 from Ahmad put him in the lead after the sixth game but was quick to lose the lead after Adri Wafiq fired a splendid 256 in the seventh game. Ahmad did narrow the gap from 28 to 18 pins after the eighth game and would face Adri in the position round match for the final game.

Ahmad defeated Adri 234-215 to snatch victory with 1893 and picked up the cash prize of RM12,000 (approx. US$2,800) as champion. Adri settled for first runner-up position with 1892 and RM6,000.

Muhammad Mubin Murzany of Selangor stormed home to finish second runner-up with 1887 to earn RM3,000. Pace-setters, Hamid, Muhammad Razydan and Aiman ended up in fourth to sixth positions with 1842, 1814 and 1809 respectively.

Felinda Grzybowska from Poland, who resides in Selangor, picked up a special trophy as the only Senior Women to qualify for the Classified Masters finals.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Kuching, Sarawak.