11th April, Manama: Topseed, Remy Ong of Singapore took an easy victory over challenger, Mohammed Kamel of Kuwait, 278-204 to emerge as champion of the 8th Kingdom of Bahrain International Open on Saturday evening.

Remy Ong, who made the round 3 finals with a bye after finishing as second highest qualifer of the second block three days ago, ended the Round 3 finals as topseed with a total of 1979 after a keen tussle for the top spot with Kuwaiti, Mohammed Kamel.

In the title match against Mohammed Kamel, Ong gave little chance to his opponent as he fired six consecutive strikes while the Kuwaiti had a double in his opening two frames and failed to keep pace with the Singaporean.

Ong easily claimed the title with a scintilating 278 over Kamel's 204 to win his second title in the Middle East. His first title was in 2006 when he captured the Qatar Open.

"The pair of lanes where we had the title match wasn't an easy pair as I had encountered in the eralier round," reflected the newly-crowned champion, Ong. "I was only making sure that I made accurate shots and into the pocket."

"It's been a few years now since winning an open title and I must thank my federation and sponsors for the opportunity. The field is very strong and the scores are very high too. There is really no room for mistakes."

Mohammed Kamel, who was seeded second, ended the fine run of Hong Kong's Cyrus Cheung when he defeated Chueng, 258-185 to set up the match with Ong. Chueng, who shot his second perfect game and the tournament's fourth, squeezed into the top 5.

He dispatched UAE's Shaker Al-Hassan, 217-209 in the first stepladder match and then went on to knock out third seed Hameed Taqi of Bahrain, 237-209 in the second match. But his run was ended when he lost to Mohammed Kamel in the third match.

Ong won US$20,000 as champion while Mohammed Kamel settled for US$10,000. Cyrus Chueng won US$6,000 while Hameed Taqi and Shaker Al-Hassan won US$5,000 and US$4,500 respectively.

The top 16 Asian qualified for the second leg of this year's ABF Tour which will be held at the same bowling center starting at 12.00noon and the scores will be featured LIVE at www.abftour.com.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Bahrain.

10th April, Manama: UAE's Naif Oqab clinched pole position in the Round 2 finals of the 8th Kingdom of Bahrain International Open to advance into the next round with defending champion, Saeed Al-Hajri and Bahraini, Ahmed Al-Noaimi second and third.

Bahrain's Fawaz Abdulla set a cracking pace with a 266 scorcher to lead another Bahraini, Ahmed Rahimi second, 15 pins ahead in the opening game. Despite another decent game of 212, Fawaz found himself dropping down the field while defending champion, Saeed Al-Hajri of Qatar grabbed the lead with a scintilating 290 in the second game.

The Qatari continued to lead the field as UAE's Naif Oqab closed the gap with another 290 in the third game. The Emirati shot another superb 279 to take over the running at the halfway mark and a comfortable margin of 60 pins from Saeed.

Naif maintained his lead for the next two games despite managing only 203 and 182 with Hong Kong's Cyrus Cheung making his bid and

trailing Naif by just 1 pin. Saeed kept pace with the leaders and was a further 1 pin from Cyrus.

An intensed game 7 saw Cyrus edging Naif by 10 pins to become the new leader while Saeed dropped off to third with a poor 194. The tide turned in favour of Naif when he rounded off with 227 to end the finals with 1889 and in pole.

"I went to the gym more frequently before coming here and I think that helped," said the southpaw, Naif Oqab. "I finished third here two years ago and it's been a long time since I've won a title. I'm looking forward to end the drought."

Saeed shot 237 to claimed second spot with 1874 with Bahraini, Ahmed Al-Noaimi storming home with 268 to snatch third spot on 1861. Cyrus eased off with 185 to tie in fourth position with Bahrain's Masoud Sabri on 1857.

Four other Bahrainis did well to make the top 12 cut with Kuwait's Mohammed Kamel taking up the final spot with 1767. Three times Bahrain Open champion, Tim Mack of USA failed to advance finishing 28th while 2001 champion, Abdulla Al-Qattan of Qatar also missed the cut in 24th.

Vanessa Fung of Hong Kong was the only female to have made the cut into the next round after she totaled 1805 plus a 7 pin handicap per

game. Top local female, Nadia Aqeel and Colombia's Sara Vargas missed the cut in 22nd and 30th positions.

The top 12 from this round will be joined by the top 6 seeded qualifiers from the preliminaries to contest the Round 3 finals for another 8 games. The top 5 finishers at the end of this round will advance into the stepladder finals.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Bahrain.

9th April, Manama: Tim Mack of USA shot the tournament's second perfect game en-route to topping third block Squad A of qualifying rounds at the 8th Kingdom of Bahrain International Open on Thursday evening.

Tim Mack, who had registered 1859 in his first squad yesterday, got off the mark in his second squad during the third and final block of qualifying with a superb 256. The American followed it up with 229, 214 and 249 in his next three games.

But Mack rocked the Fun Land Bowling Center with 12 consecutive strikes to shoot the tournament's second perfect game in the fifth game. A further good game of 268 in the seventh game gave Mack a total of 1932 thus topping the squad.

His 18-game total of 3791 from two squads in the third block assured him a bye into Stage 2 finals by way of topping the final block and joining four other seeded qualifiers from the first two blocks.

UAE's Naif Oqab, who was leading until the halfway mark of the squad, settled for second with 1830 and an 18-game total of 3773. The southpaw will be hoping that no one else better his total with the remaining squad in progress.

Bahrainis, Mahdi Assad and Sami Noor occupied the first two seeded slots with 3825 and 3803 being the top 2 from the first block. Singapore's Remy Ong and Mohammad Sultan of Bahrain occupied the second top 2 positions with 3845 and 3699 after topping the second block.

Tim Mack and Naif Oqab took up the final top 2 seeded positions with 3791 and 3773. UAE's Shaker Al-Hassan and Norway's Mads Sandbakken, who bowled one squad in the third block yesterday appeared to have the best chance of beating either Mack and Naif for the last top 2 positions.

Qualifiers from positions 7 to 26 will be joined by four best Bahrainis,

one best female qualifier and the defending champion will bowl 8 games in Stage 1 finals on April 10. The top 12 will be joined by the six seeded from the preliminary blocks to bowl another 8 games on April 11 to determine the top 5 advancing into the stepladder finals.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Bahrain.

7th April, Manama: Singapore's Remy Ong topped the second block of qualifying rounds at the 8th Kingdom of Bahrain International Open to assure himself a spot in the Stage 2 semifinals.

Local keglers, Mahdi Assad and Sami Noor had dominated the first block of qualifying the past two days by occupying first and second position. Mahdi registered 1958 and 1867 in his two 8-game squads for a total of 3825 for top spot.

Sami downed 1973 and 1830 for an aggregate 16-game total 3803 for second position. Hong Kong's Cyrus Cheung, who posted the first perfect game of the tournament, posted 1941 and 1802 for a total of 3743 to take up third spot.

In the second block, World and Asian champion, Remy Ong outshone his opponents by posting 1891 in the first 8-game squad and set the lanes at Fun Land Bowling Center on fire as he reeled in 1954 to top the second block with 3845.

Ong had managed 3612 from two squads of 1686 and 1926 and was sixth overnight. Bahrain's Mohammad Sultan and Yousif Falah, who missed the second perfect game, settled for second and third with 3699 and 3691 respectively.

Hong Kong's Vanessa Fung did well to become the best female performer in the block. Fung downed 1882 and 1784 to finish fourth with 3666 while Ahmed Al-Noami of Bahrain rounded up the top 5 with a total of 3664.

Remy Ong thus lead the overall standings with 3845 ahead of two Bahrainis, Mahdi Assad and Sami Noor in second and third with 3825 and 3803. Cyrus Cheung completed the top 4 with 3743.

The third and final block of qualifying will be contested on Wednesday and Thursday. A total of 38 bowlers - top 2 from each of the three blocks will be seeded 1 to 6 and earn a bye into Stage 2 finals.

The top 26 plus next four Bahrainis, one best female and the defending champion will bowl 8 games in Stage 1 finals on April 10. The top 12 will be joined by the six seeded from the preliminary blocks to bowl another 8 games on April 11 to determine the top 5 advancing into the stepladder finals.

The champion will walk away with the top prize of US$20,000, the runnerup US$10,000 with positions three to five taking home US$5,000, US$4,000 and US$3,000 respectively.

Photos Terence Yaw in Bahrain.