Bowling’s golden girl

HONG KONG – Liza del Rosario sparked the Philippines’ campaign in the 17th Asian Tenpin Bowling Championships, winning the gold in the women’s singles event at the start of the weeklong meet here Saturday.

Last year’s World Cup runner-up finished with a six-game series of 1383 pinfalls, burning the SCAA Bowling Center on scores of 210, 222, 236, 226, 277 and 212 to repulse the challenge of Singapore’s Valerie Teo (1334) and Cathy Elwell (1261) of Australia, who ended up second and third, respectively.

The victory made up for the heartbreaking loss Del Rosario, currently ranked ninth in the world and a doubles gold medalist in last year’s Kuala Lumpur Southeast Asian Games, suffered in the recent CGU Asian Bowling Tour third leg held in Manila where she lost in the finals against Chinese-Taipei’s Wang Yu Ling.

Other than Del Rosario, the rest of the RP women’s team members also fared well. Team captain Jojo Canare wound up at sixth place with 1217 pinfalls followed by Cecille Yap at seventh with 1215 and Liza Clutario at 20th (1171).

Biboy Rivera carried the fight for the men’s squad but could only settle for fourth place with a 1314 total, missing the silver medal by just five pins.

CJ Suarez was the next best Filipino after Rivera, also a gold medalist in the last SEA Games, at 17th place with 1246 pinfalls while Chester King was at 28th with a total of 1226.

Four-time World Cup champion Paeng Nepomuceno struggled and was good for only 35th place with 1219 pinfalls.

A total of 22 countries from around Asia including bowling powerhouses Malaysia, Korea, Japan, Australia and the Middle East, are seeing action in the tournament also serving as preview of the bowling events of the coming Asian Games in Busan, South Korea.

The doubles will be held next, where the Philippine is one of the favored teams. Trios, five-man, all-events and masters are also to be held.