18th January, Muscat: 33rd SEA Games Team gold medalist, Marc Dylan Custodio of Philippines claimed pole position of the overall qualifying standings at the Muscat International Open Bowling Championships 2026 ahead of overnight leader, Kim Bolleby of Sweden in second.

Custodio, who was in sixth position with 2039, notched up a sizzling 754 3-game series to take his 9-game aggregate to 2172. His superb effort propelled the Filipino to the top of the standings. Bolleby also improved with a 721 series but settled for second with 2153.

The top 2 highest qualifiers crucially earned a bye and automatically advance to Round 3 Final. The top 2 highest Omani qualifiers, Khalid Issa and Musaab Aladwi retained third and fourth spots with 2054 and will also automatically advance to Round 3 Final.

2025 IBF World Championships Team bronze medalist, Muhammed Syazirol Shamsuddin of Malaysia, missed the top 2 spots by 44 pins to head qualifiers positioned 5 to 30 for Round 2 Semi-finals with 2109. Early leader, Aseel Alroomi of Kuwait slipped down to sixth with 2089.

Ahmed Muaz joined his fellow-countrymen, Muhammed Syazirol in seventh position with 2068. Two-time Amir Cup champion, Tomas Kayhko of Finland impressed with 2064 to take up eighth position while Mahmood Alattar of UAE and Richard Teece of England completed the to 10.

Current cut in 30th position is held by Danial Abusamah of Malaysia with 1982. Positions 31 to 32 are reserved for the top 2 highest scorer of the one-game Desperado squad, which will be contested after the end of the last squad late this evening at 12 midnight.

A total of 28 qualifiers will contest Round 2 Semi-finals over 6 games. The top 12 at the end of the Semi-finals will be joined by the four seeded qualifiers from the general standings for another 8 games. The top 5 at the end of the Final will proceed to the Stepladder Shootout finals. The third-seed, fourth-seed and fifth-seed will square off over one match. The winner of the first match will advance to face the second-seed, again over one match.

The winner of the second match will face the top-seed over one match to determine this year's champion. The top prize for the champion is 8,500 Omani riyal (approx. US$22,000) with 4,300 riyal to the first runner-up and 3,000 riyal to the second runner-up.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Muscat, Oman.