AYG Bowling: A second gold in Singapore’s bowl

By 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.