AYG Bowling: A second gold in Singapore’s bowl
By Marvin Lowe/Red Sports.
16 year old Darshini Krishna and partner New Huifen leading the pack at the moment. (Photo 1 © Marvin Lowe/Red Sports)
Orchid Country Club, Wednesday, July 1, 2009 – The Singaporean team of New Huifen and Darshini Krishna bagged the Republic’s second gold medal in the Asian Youth Games’ (AYG) girls doubles bowling event.
Singapore first AYG gold medalist, New Huifen, teamed up with Darshini to stave off challenges from the Korean, Thai and Japanese teams to emerge as the champion pair. Huifen is in good stead to win the all-events and progress to the Masters tournament as well.
Unlike in the singles’ event, Huifen started off her doubles campaign with bang, knocking down 8 strikes in a row and was on her way to a perfect game before hitting bump in the 9th frame. But she finished by striking out the last frame to finish with a high score of 276 pins.
Huifen’s doubles partner Darshini Krishna was on fire as well, hitting a score of 248 pins, to allow Singapore to take the lead with a total of 524 pins.
Hot on their heels were the Japanese pair of Misaki Mutoni and Yuka Oshima who finished with a score of 489 pins. Misaki, the runner-up in the singles event, matched Huifen strike for strike, finishing with a high score 278 pins.
Team Singapore continued to lead the pack as the Japanese pair faltered in the second game, while Darshini maintained her fine form when she hit 227 pins in her second game. Huifen was not far behind either, with a score of 217 pins, keeping up the 200 average pace she has set for herself.
The Japanese suffered a setback after Yuka failed to maintain a clean game, leaving open frames at crucial moments. Misaki carried her team mate with 230 pinfalls but the Japanese duo have now fallen behind by over 86 pins.
Team Singapore then extended their lead by another 25 pins after the third game in the girls double competition, with Darshini knocking down 185 pins and Huifen bowled 234 ping. Huifen’s score could have been even more massive had it not been for a cruel split in the 9th frame.
The Japanese pair continued to struggle to keep pace as Yuka continued to falter and scored a low 155 pins but her Misaki went from strength-to-strength as she bowled 244 pins to continue her team’s hunt for gold.
At that point, however, South Korea has made a silent entrance into the fray after a fine performance in the third game to overtake Japan for second spot, while Singapore held the lead by over 111 pins half way through the match.
In the fourth game, both the Singapore and Japan lead bowlers were plagued by splits and open frames, as Huifen could only manage a score of 172 pins only did 1 pin more, and had to rely on their partners to carry them. Darshini helped Singapore extend their lead by 10 when she knocked down 215 pins, while Yuka managed to score 205.
In an interesting twist of events, the Thais came into contention as well after bowling consecutive high games in games 3 and 4, as they cut Singapore’s lead down to 72 pins and took over Japan and Korea to tailgate the host.
Yanee Saebee from Thailand rolled an impressive 279 pins and 232 pins in these two games to lead her team’s charge forward.
In the fifth game, the Singapore team was paired with the Thai team on the same pair of lanes without realising that the Thai team had caught up and cut down the lead. Huifen steadied herself to roll an equally impressive 245 pins while Darshini chipped in with a 194 pins.
Lady luck smiled at the Singaporeans as their closest competitors, Yanee Saebee could only muster 228 pins while her partner, Tanaprang Saethan, pulled their scores further down with only a 176.
It would take a massive and cruel twist of fortunes for the Singapore team to lose now but despite a cushion of over a 100 pins, the Singaporean pair was determined not to slip up as they entered into the sixth and final game.
Living up to expectations, Huifen and Darshini rolled strike after strike to register scores of 211 pins and 256 pins respectively, though Thailand’s Yanee did hit a massive 268 pins but was insufficient to deny Singapore from taking their second gold.
Misaki from Japan was one of the early contenders but they failed to keep pace in the end. (Photo 2 © Marvin Lowe/Red Sports)
New Huifen revs up her ball for yet another strike. (Photo 3 © Marvin Lowe/Red Sports)
Yuka Oshima in action for Japan. (Photo 4 © Marvin Lowe/Red Sports)
Thailand’s Yanee Saebe who is only 14 years old, led a comeback for the Thai team. (Photo 5 © Marvin Lowe/Red Sports)
Korea’s Sim Ui-Jin gave Singapore a close fight to the end. (Photo 6 © Marvin Lowe/Red Sports)
New Huifen leads the way with her powerful back swing. (Photo 7 © Marvin Lowe/Red Sports)
New Huifen gives Darshini Krishna a hug after sealing their victory. (Photo 8 © Marvin Lowe/Red Sports)
16 year old Darshini Krishna and New Huifen waving to their supporters. (Photo 9 © Marvin Lowe/Red Sports)
Darshini Krishna and partner New Huifen tasting their success. (Photo 10 © Marvin Lowe/Red Sports)
Han
I agree Junwei… To me, the spirit of sports is not just about winning… And it’s not easy to list down 10 moments.
All the young athletes have done well and I hope Singaporeans will support them.
My kids and I watched the match played by Isabelle and it was a great game! Her fighting spirit is something which I admire!
WW
Les,
Thanks for the explanation. No doubt that Red Sports had better coverage than The Straits Times and New Paper. Keep up the good work.
Les
@WW: Thanks, WW. : )
Les
@WW.
Thanks for your comment.
There are two issues which you have raised – coverage of athletics and great moments.
For coverage of athletics, please see this post: http://redsports.sg/2009/07/12/ayg-stories-crew/
It will show that the Red Sports gave quite a bit of coverage for athletics.
As for great moments, the list above is a personal opinion of the writers.
Readers will obviously have their own highlight moments and we welcome them to list their own.
I doubt there will be a list of top 10 that everyone will agree with.
WW
What happen to the coverage of Athletics? No great moment? If you were at the stadium watching medal winning events i.e. Boy 100m, Girl 100 hurdles etc, your heart would be poping. 3 highlights for Swimming and 0 for Athletics.
njngk
yea where’s shahrir?
Les
@ice – we agree about your point with regards to the coverage for football. Hence this article:
http://redsports.sg/2009/07/10/basketball-football-ayg/
But not sure why this list is “funny”. It highlights a moment of individual football brilliance. The other 9 highlights have nothing to do with football.
Also, the REDcrew have written a total of 64 stories on the AYG covering the different sports that Singapore athletes have been involved in.
You can take a quick browse of the AYG stories we wrote to confirm it. It’s not just about football.
http://redsports.sg/category/asian-youth-games/
jan
Thanks Kar Teck, Jun Wei. : )
I guess from a post like this, it reveals to us whether sports readers in Singapore have matured in their perception of “sports”.
We asked, “Were they a moment for you too?” – clearly this post is not about imposing/asserting our views but just a sharing. : )
Sporting moments are fundamentally an exemplification of the ‘soul’ of a sport, a team, an individual – what stays on after the hype wears off.
Lynette may have broken her own 400m record and got a gold and swam a beautiful victory – but for her, a freestyle specialist, to brave the outrageous butterfly leg in the 4×100 medley relay and win the bronze, that is a moment I know I will remember Lynette for.
Hanafi was singled out precisely because despite the disappointment of the football team, but when Hanafi found the net – I will not deny that for a moment I thought Singapore might win. And if that thought hit you, too, then that was already a moment for you.
Victories are temporal, moments are eternal – thank you. : )
Kar-teck Yeo
@marissab @Emmanuel @ice
I truly believe this list is entirely the opinion of the writer.
Agree with @junwei – instead of keep on asking who is not on this list, why don’t everyone who has a better opinion list their own top 10 moments? Trust me it’s not easy.
junwei
This post is about the Singapore moments for us. It need not necessarily have to be a moment where a medal was won. If that is the case then basketball should not be up there. But do the fans think that they have not fought hard and deserved credit?
Yes the Singapore football team might not have delivered but certainly seeing them score against a mightier Iran was definitely a moment for us. Watching Isabelle lose out to her North Korean opponent in that close 7-set match was definitely a memorable moment, and seeing her on the brink of tears was definitely a Singapore moment for me though she might not have won a medal. The fighting spirit and emotion put in was definitely one she can be proud of.
So @marrissab, why not you put up your 10 Singapore moments. If all you care about are the gold medal winners then you are not showing respect to the other athletes who have put in their all and unfortunately lost out on a medal.
ice
What a funny list. I do not understand why football is always praised to the skies. Crash out in the group stages? Get full coverage in the papers. Win only a SEA Games bronze? Full coverage in the papers. People have to realise our footballers do not deliver, on any stages, regional or international. When you give football so much attention, have you ever thought of our athletes in other sports who work equally hard and actually have results to show for it? Yet they always get one-liner mention in the papers while football hog the limelight.
You can argue that the footballers train hard. But ALL our athletes train hard, yet somehow they dont get the attention they deserve
Emmanuel
Where is Shahrir?
hyn
Isabelle showed great sportsmanship and perseverance in her game with the Korean and she deserves to be recognized for she has brought out the spirit of sports. the paddlers have been training extremely hard for the AYG and YOG. So they deserve due recognition for their efforts and perseverance. Please show respect for their efforts:D
marissab
You have all the gold medallists’ moments up there, except Lynette Lim’s 400 free win? Come on, show some respect. Football and table tennis for their complete lack of results somehow get on this list, but a gold medallist isnt.
123
isabelle rocks la!