King reigns in all-events

HONG KONG – Veteran Chester King dished out another sterling performance and teammate Raoul Miranda held his ground to give the Philippines a gold-silver finish in the men’s all-events competition Wednesday in the 20th Asian tenpin bowling championships here.

King added a three-game series of 648 pins to his Asian three-game record of 813 to amass a 24-game total of 5534 (230.58 average) from his singles, doubles, trios and team outings. Miranda, already the singles bronze medalist, accounted for 5444 (226.83) to hold off United Arab Emirates’ Hussain Al-Suwaidi, who settled for the bronze with 5366 (223.58).

King’s fiery showing gave him his first individual gold after his team up with Miranda and Frederick Ong had earned for the Filipinos their first gold medal in the tough week-long kegfest.

King, Miranda, Ong (5109), Tyrone Ongpauco (4941) and Vlad Tuazon (4878) landed only sixth in the five-player team event with a six-game series of 6364 pins.

However, the depleted RP squad gets another chance to win medals when King, Miranda and first-timer Krizziah Lyn Tabora compete in the centerpiece Masters event Thursday and Friday.

“Chester and Raoul proved to be our heroes,” said PBC president Steve Hontiveros. “They delivered when we needed it most, considering that our top two bowlers – world champion Biboy Rivera and Paulo Valdez – failed to compete due to injuries.”

Joining King, Miranda and Hussain in the men’s Masters finals are Qatar’s Mubarak Al-Muraikhi, Malaysia’s Alex Liew, Korea’s Choi Ki-Bong, Hong Kong’s Wu Siu Hong, Japan’s Masaru Ito, Malaysia’s Zulmazran Zulkifli, Singapore’s Shaun Ng, China’s Zhang Peng, Korea’s Kim Tae-Yo    ung, Malaysia’s Adrian Ang, Qatar’s Saeed Al-Hajri, Hong Kong’s Michael Tsang and Kuwait’s Mohammad Alrajibah.