Melaka Leg Champions crowned

(Report by Tony Lim and YK Choo)

Boys Open Winners

Girls Open Winners

Boys Graded Winners

Under-12 Champions

Girls Graded Winners

Fatin Haswani and Tan Wooi Seong gave Penang the shine while Noor Syairah binti Amran and Muhd. Afnan Shafiq put the oomph back to SSBP and Pahang respectively.

It was another day of excitement at Melaka International Bowling Centre in the finals of the National Junior Tenpin Bowling Circuit when the outcome of the winners was decided by the match play finals.

Muhd Afnan Shafiq Jaafar of Pahang disposed off favourite Muhd Aizudeen Mustaqim of Selangor in a best of 3 games finals. Afnan lost 138 – 184 in the first game and many in the spectators stand thought that the game was over given the experience of Aizudeen.

However Afnan was not cowed by the occasion and instead showed that he was made of stronger and more resilient attitude when he shot a 214 – 197 to take the second game and force the match into a tie breaker which Afnan won with ease beating Aizudeen 199 -171.

In the Girls Open division, Natasha Roslan of Selangor open the first salvo when she won the game 237 – 201 from Fatin Haswani binti Hassan of Penang. But the tenacious Fatin Haswani fought back gamely and with the encouragement of her coach, Kim Eun Jung who was behind her all the way, she won the second game 195 -181 and in the decider that Fatin pulverized the pins to score 265 – 183 win and with that, claimed the Girls Open title of the Melaka Leg.

Another Penangnite, Tan Wooi Seong just did as instructed by his energetic coach to claim the title in 2 games with a 181 – 168 and 199 – 198 win over Mohd Syafiz Syahmi Suhaimi of Selangor. But Wooi Seong was the surprise in the pack as he was never expected to go this far but he made the move at the correct timing. Going into the finals as the second seed and getting a bye right into the semi finals, he never looked back from then onwards.

Banda Penawar Sports School had the best outing when Noor Syairah binti Amran took the Girls Graded title when she beat Nora Lyana Natasia of Selangor 183 -179 and 180 -147. But the win came as no surprise for the top seed who had earlier bowled a high game of 280 in the first game of the second block to stamp her mark as a title contender.

In the Under 12 boys and girls division, Tun Ameerul Al Hakim of Perak overcame his tendency to get flustered easily and concentrated on his spares to secure a well fought victory when he scored 2161 pinfalls for a 180 average over Muhd Nadsreen bin Nadzri of Kuala Lumpur who had a total of 2155 pinfalls to take second place.

Amirul Firdaus bin Abdul Halim of Kuala Lumpur Megalanes settled for third placing with 2088 pinfalls while Muhd. Nur Hazarizq of Selangor finishing in fourth placing with 2000 pinfalls. A total of 71 boys participated in the Under 12 category making the competition even tougher.

Nur Fadlin of Perak scored a high game of 244 in the final game to seal the title with a total of 2031 pinfalls for a credible 169 average while Ayra Nur Jehan of Selangor took second place with 1960 pinfalls. Nur Dayana binti Zuhdi of Kuala Lumpur came in third with 1950 pinfalls and Anis Syazlin of Penang settled for fourth placing with 1856 pinfalls.

Siti Safiyah from the National Elite Squad made a surprise visit to the finals and was invited to give away the prizes. It was in 2004 that Siti Safiyah won the Grand Prix Finals. She is an excellent example and an inspiration to all bowlers that if they word hard that they too could one day be champions and represent Malaysia on the world stage.

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