MALAYSIAN BOWLERS END DAY TWO OF ASIAN JUNIOR MEET EMPTY-HANDED

PETALING JAYA, June 19 (Bernama) -- Malaysian keglers ended the second day of the 23rd Asian Junior Bowling Championships empty-handed after failing to strike it right in the boys’ and girls’ doubles events at the Sunway Mega Lanes in Bandar Sunway here today.

But national junior squad coach Alex Liew is not ready to push the panic button, attributing today's poor performance to the difficulty of getting all the bowlers to attend centralised training as some are from other states.

"And since this is an Under-18 event, they had to attend school. So, basically, we only had one week to prepare them for this tournament.

"Actually (today) we fought all the way, none of them gave up. So, they did their best (but) sometimes, it happens (when) it's not your day. But, there is still tomorrow…,” he said after the prize-giving ceremony today.

Earlier, Singapore reigned supreme in the boys’ and girls’ doubles events by clinching the gold medals through Joshua Gaza-Aviel Chua (2,585 pinfalls) and Jean Neo-Isabelle Wee (2,454 pinfalls) respectively.

Qatar's Talal Al Marri-Ibrahim Al Moreikhi (2,571) and Kuwait's Nasser Alkandari-Adel Ali took home silver and bronze respectively in the boys’ doubles category. In the girls'’ doubles event, another Singaporean partnership - Ella Tan-Hazel Tan (2,446) - took silver while Australians Emily Hinspeter-Emily Hart (2,414) settled for bronze.

Malaysia's best performers today were Afiqah Kamilia Ali-Adelia Nur Irwan Syazalee (girls’ doubles) and Ahmad Farish Danial-Wan Zarif Ikram (boys’ doubles).

While Afiqah Kamilia-Adelia finished fourth out of 24 pairs with 2,356 pinfalls while Ahmad Farish-Wan Zarif came in eighth out of 40 pairs with 2,455 pinfalls.

Meanwhile, Singapore Bowling Federation senior national assistant coach Jensen Lim said the two gold medals would spur his keglers to continue to raise their game. 

“We teach our youngsters to focus on the process. If they do well in the process, the result will come naturally. So, whenever the result happens, it's always a pleasant surprise,” he said.

Malaysia began their campaign in the championships with a two-bronze haul through Ethan Damian Goh (boys’ singles) and Qurratu’ain Izdihar Mohd Pozi (girls’ singles).

Fourteen teams, including Malaysia, Australia, Singapore, China, Indonesia, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Macau and Pakistan, are competing in the June 16-23 championships.

-- BERNAMA