16th December, Bangkok: Fifth-seed, Muhammad Syazirol Shamsuddin and Rafiq Ismail defeated Lapasdanai Chusaeng and Vilinkorn Kledkaew of Thailand in the final to capture Malaysia's first gold medal of the 33rd SEA Games Bowling Championships as Tsen Fan Yew and Tun Hakim added the bronze medal.

Muhammad Syazirol started their title bid with a superb turkey and Rafiq added a double while Lapasdanai and Vilinkorn had a cautious start to trail the Malaysian duo. Lapasdanai responded with three strikes-in-a-row to draw level at the halfway mark.

Whilst Rafiq failed to spare a single pin in frame six, Syazirol fired six pack to draw away from the Thais. Although Vilinkorn fought back gallantly with three strikes-in-a-row, Rafiq recovered with a double to put the match beyond Thailand.

Syazirol ended with 267 and Rafiq 203 to beat Thailand 470-435 to win their first gold medal. Lapasdanai finished with 220 and Vilinkorn 215 to settle for yet another silver.

Thailand narrowly defeated Yeri Ramadona and Billy Muhammad Islam of Indonesia B, 407-399 in the quarter-finals to advance to the semi while Syazirol and Rafiq were forced into a 9th and 10th frame tie-breaker against another Thai pair of Supakrit Wantasuk and Napat Buspanikonkul with a 39-37 win after both pairs ended with 433 each in the quarter-finals.

In the earlier six-games qualifying round, Ryan Toh and Mike Ong of Singapore topped the field with 2719. Lapasdanai and Vilinkorn finished second with 2586 followed by the second Philippines pair in third with 2556. The second Thai pair took fourth position with 2546.

Both Malaysian pairs finished fifth and sixth while Indonesia B and Singapore B completed the top 8 pairs advancing to the quarter-finals. Mr Visarut Poolvalaruk, Director of Major Cineplex Group PLC gave away the medals to the winners.

The women will take to the lanes tomorrow at 10:00am local time to contest their Doubles qualifying round. The top 8 pairs will advance to the quarter-finals.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Bangkok, Thailand.