23rd September, Hong Kong: The Men's and Women's titles of this year's final leg went to Ryan Lalisang of Indonesia and Kim Eun Jung of Korea at the ABF Tour Hong Kong just concluded at the new Hong Kong Bowling City at Kowloon Bay.

The title match between Ryan Lalisang of Indonesia and Yannaphon Larpapharat of Thailand returned the slowest scoring match for the leg with Lalisang narrowly winning, 163-149. The champion immediately had an advantage when Yannaphon had a split in the second frame.

The Thai suffered three more splits in the fourth, fifth and seventh frames which more or less decided the tie although the Indonesian also suffered two splits in the sixth and eighth frames.

"The carry down of the oil happend so fast that we found it extremely difficult to pick out spot to bowl," commented the champion, Lalisang after the match. "I just rolled the ball down the lanes and hoped for the best.

"But I'm gald to have picked up the final leg title and I have to give credit to my opponent, Yannaphon who has been bowling great both in the Hong Kong Open and today's tour.

Lalisang reached the finals after he knocked out 2005 Hong Kong leg champion, Michael Tsang, 214-201 in the most closely fought men's first semifinal match while Yannaphon ended a home ground victory for Hong Kong when he edged Chan Tsz Hin, 198-178 in the other semi.

Newly-crowned Hong Kong Open champion, Wu Siu Hong was eliminated by the eventual champion, Lalisang in Round 2, 221-205. But Wu posted the highest game of the leg in ROund 1 when he defeated fellow-countrymen, Jack Law, 246-168.

In the women's division, Asian Ranked No. 1 and current leader in ABF Tour rankings leaderboard, Kim Eun Jung finally captured her first title this year. The victory also gave the Korean her first-ever tour title after being the most appearances in the tour.

Kim outclassed Indonesia Open champion, Bernice Lim in the women's title match, 200-165 cementing her pole in both the tour rankings as well as stretching her lead in the Asian Ranking.

The champion opened accounts with a turkey when matched against 15-year-old Singapore Sports School's Bernice Lim. It was Bernice who had the bad breaks with three consecutive splits from frame 4.

While the youngster just could not settle down to her usual rythmn, Kim displayed her years of experience to eventually cruise home a comfortable victory over the Singaporean. But Kim was lucky to have made the finals after narrowly edging Thailand's Saowapha Kunaksorn, 182-180 in the second semifinals.

Bernice made the finals after she ended Hong Kong's Cookie Lee, 198-160 in the first semifinal match. Indonesia's Tannya Roumimper posted the women's highest game when she defeated Vanessa Fung in round 1 but lost to Cookie in the second round.

Both the champions topped the final tour ranking standings. Ryan Lalisang accummulated 256 points from 2 wins, 1 second and 1 third place finishes. Kim topped the women's standings with 183 points with just 1 victory, 1 third, 1 sixth and 1 eighth place finish.

The top 16 men and top 16 women from the final ranking will qualify for the ABF Tour - Tournament of Champions which will be staged in January, 13 - 16 2008 in Jakarta, Indonesia.

The ABF Tour Hong Kong leg was telecast LIVE over local cable channel, Now TV Sports from 6.00 to 8.30pm. Highlights of the leg will also be televised later on local television stations of the eight countries where the tour is being held.

For further information and details please contact ABF Tour Committee Marketing and Event Management Division at Tel: (852) 2810 5191; Fax: (852) 28105192; Mr. Steven Chan (Mobile: +852 9303 3102; email: steve.chan@tndgroup.com).

Photos by Terence Yaw.