Asian C’ships masters bronze for bowler Jasmine Yeong-Nathan

SINGAPORE – It has been eight years since national bowler Jasmine Yeong-Nathan won the QubicaAMF Bowling World Cup in 2008 – a first-ever triumph for a Singaporean at the prestigious event. While the individual honours have dried up since, Yeong-Nathan finally broke her duck at international competitions yesterday after clinching a bronze medal in the women’s masters at the 24th Asian Tenpin Bowling Championships in Hong Kong.

After placing fifth in the first block of eight games in the long oil on Tuesday, former world champion Yeong-Nathan clawed back in second block to finish third among the 16-strong field yesterday, scoring a total of 3,519 pinfalls to qualify for the stepladder finals.

But the 28-year-old could not get past a feisty challenge from South Korea’s Jung Da Wun in the semi-final, losing the game 177-224 to her rival.

Jung, who had bagged the women’s team, singles and all-events gold earlier in the tournament, eventually claimed gold after defeating teammate Baek Seung Ja 440-364 in the two-game stepladder final.

Yeong-Nathan, a management consultant with KPMG, told TODAY that it has been challenging balancing work commitments with training and competition.

“It’s been a very trying time for me, and this year was pretty tough for me in all aspects,” she said.

“I was working so I took about one-and-a-half months off from work to train for this tournament. I was also sick at the start of the year so it’s been tough.

“We definitely wanted to go for gold (in all the events), but I’m glad I was able to help bring back a medal for the country.”

Yeong-Nathan is also aiming for a spot on the six-member women’s team for the 2017 SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur after missing out on last year’s edition, as she added: “I was the first reserve and that was tough as it would have been nice to bowl on home ground. We have a very strong women’s team and it’s always very competitive…I have a couple of things to work on which I will continue to do.”

The Singapore bowlers’ haul of two bronze medals (women’s team, masters) at the Asian Championships saw the Republic finishing seventh out of eight countries – a sharp dip from last year’s tournament in Bangkok where Singapore finished third with two gold and a silver.

With senior bowlers Shayna Ng, Jazreel Tan, Cherie Tan and New Hui Fen missing from the line-up in Hong Kong, acting head coach Francis Yeo said they had chosen a few younger players for the tournament as part of the sport’s succession plans.

“Nobody is happy with the outcome, but in terms of commitment…we were prepared and they gave 101 per cent,” he said.

“We got caught off slightly off guard and didn’t make changes fast enough. We need to adapt to the changes and learn from this experience.”