19th January, Muscat: 2025 Asian Youth Team gold medalist, Nasser Alkandari of Kuwait defeated Ben Robinson of England, 245-217 in an all-lefty stepladder final match to bag the Muscat International Open Bowling Championships 2026 Masters title.
Both title contenders started on equal footing and alternating strikes with a spared frame up to the sixth frame. Alkandari rolled a double and Robinson responded with a double. But it was the Kuwaiti who was able to add another double in the eighth and ninth frames.
The Brit was unable to respond this time as Alkandari went on to end with another double in the tenth frame to put the match beyond Robinson winning with just one match.
Robinson had earlier defeated two-time Amir Cup winner and 2026 IBF World Championships Singles silver medalist, Tomas Kayhko of Finland, 238-217 in the second match to face top-seed, Alkandari. The third-seed Finn dispatched fourth-seed, Mohammed Syazirol Shamshuddin of Malaysia and fifth-seed, Musaab Aladwi of Oman, 224-202-210 in the first stepladder match.
Nasser Alkandari with his trophy and cheque of 8,500 Omani riyal
Alkandari took home the top prize of 8,500 Oamni riyal (approx. US$22,000) as champion while Robinson settled for 4,300 riyal and Kayhko 3,000 riyal as first and second runner-ups. Aladwi and Mohammed Syazirol earned 2,000 and 1,500 riyal respectively.
In the earlier Round 2 Semi-finals, Robinson rolled the second perfect game en-route to winning the round with a total of 1360 pinfalls followed by Mahmood Alattar of UAE in second with 1347. Talal Alamarri of Qatar finished third with 1336 while Kim Hyunmin of Korea and Maseed Almuraikhi of Qatar rounded the top 5 with 1331 and 1316 respectively.
Abdulmajeed Alaslani of Saudi Arabia made the cut in 12th position with 1276 while local Omani, Hassan Alkharsousi missed the cut by four pins finishing 13th position.
A total of 157 bowlers from 20 countries participated in this year's championship in which each bowler had to bowl three sets of 3-games qualifying rounds to make the top 30 with the highest 9-game aggregate.
Photos by Terence Yaw in Muscat, Oman.
Top 3 winners, Ben Robinson, Nasser Alkandari and Tomas Kayhko
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