SEA Games: Cherie Tan captures S'pore's first bowling gold

KUALA LUMPUR - Singapore's Cherie Tan has won a first bowling gold medal in women's singles at the SEA Games.

She beat a field of 34 including home favourite Sin Li Jane and defending gold medallist Daphne Tan of Singapore to claim gold.

Cherie  scored a total of 1,413 pinfalls, Malaysia's Sin Li Jane and veteran Shalin Zulkifli won silver and bronze with their scores of  1,300 and 1,297 pinfalls respectively.

Singapore's Shayna Ng (1,290) missed out on the podium by seven pinfalls while New Hui Fen (1,286), Jazreel Tan (1,284), Bernice Lim (1,189) were fifth, sixth and 19th respectively. Cherie's younger sister Daphne, the defending champion, was 25th with  1,120 pinfalls.

An emotional Cherie paid tribute to former coach Henry Tan after her victory - the Singapore bowling icon died of heart failure last week at the age of 73. 

"The atmosphere of the team is sombre because Henry just died... We are doing this for him," she said. 

"I knew him when he was my coach when I was in secondary school. He was a strict coach when I was young. 

"He saw out progress and always supported us. Everytime we returned to Singapore from overseas competitions, he was there at the airport to receive us."

Tearing up as she recalled the support from her former coach, she added: "Yes, we will miss seeing him at the airport when we go back. 

"We are definitely sad, but at the end of the day, he would want us to do well. The lanes were really nice today and the pins just fell, maybe someone up there was watching out for us."