Bowlers bounce back with gold, silver in women’s trios

SINGAPORE — Keglers Shayna Ng, Cherie Tan and Bernice Lim were in such fine form in the women’s trio competition yesterday that they had already secured the gold medal with two games left in the second and final block at the Orchid Country Club.

The trio finished with 3936 pinfalls, some 256 ahead of their second-placed compatriots Daphne Tan, New Hui Fen and Jazreel Tan. Filipinos Alexis Sy Marie, Maria Arles and Lara Posada took the bronze with a pinfall of 3608.

World champion bowler Ng was the star performer for the gold-medal trio and she attributed their blistering form to teamwork, saying: “The communication among the three of us was excellent and we pushed one another. I wasn’t great on the medium oil (condition of lane) and during the long I came back again. It was great teamwork because when one of us was not doing well, there were two others who were doing well.”

It was sweet revenge for the winning trio after Singapore’s female bowlers were edged out of the podium in the doubles event on Wednesday. And it was especially sweet for Lim, whose poor form in the doubles saw her and partner Jazreel finishing fourth. Going into the trios, the 23-year-old said she was focused on making amends.

“All that was in my mind in the trios was just to fight back and win a medal for Singapore and I am really glad that we were able to do that,” said Lim.

The women will now head into the Team of Five event buoyed by yesterday’s success, but Ng is wary of letting their high spirits and complacency get in the way.

Said Ng: “Tomorrow is a brand-new day and we must not be complacent after today’s win because I think that is what happened after Daphne won the singles and none of us won a medal in the doubles.” Added Cherie: “We are starting on the long oil, which is advantageous to us. So hopefully we can get a good lead before going into the medium oil.”

After three days of bowling competitions, the outlay of gold medals in bowling has been split evenly between Singapore and Malaysia with three apiece. IAN DE COTTA