Revving it up in Vegas

Malaysian bowlers lead the way after first block

PETALING JAYA: Sin Li Jane (pic) inspired Malaysia to a promising start in their bid to reclaim the women’s team gold at the World Championships in Las Vegas.

Li Jane rolled impressive lines of 238-217-247 for a 702 total to help Malaysia, the Kuala Lumpur 2003 and Monterrey 2007 champions, top the first block of 15 games with 3,117 pinfalls at the South Point Bowling Centre on Friday.

Syaidatul Afifah Badrul Hamidi was the second best performer with 653 pinfalls, followed by Siti Safiyah Amirah Abdul Rahman (626) and Shalin Zulkifli (598).

Esther Cheah’s low 538 meant Malaysia could only reach the halfway stage with a slim 12-pin lead over Colombia (3,105).

Taiwan (3,076) and three-time champions South Korea (3,066) completed the top four standings.

Defending champions United States were seventh on 3,012.

With the top 10 teams separated by just 160 pins, the race for the four playoff berths is still wide open.

Team manager Maradona Chok believes that the girls should be a shoo-in “if they can maintain their scoring form”.

“Esther could have done better. She just couldn’t find the consistency. We’ll replace her with Natasha Roslan.”

Natasha did well with a 607 – the highest among those not fielded by their teams. The scores will count for the All-Events.

Malaysia also stayed in contention in the men’s division.

Rafiq Ismail (660), Ahmad Muaz Fishol (679), Syafiq Ridhwan Abdul Malek (566), Timmy Tan (589) and Alex Liew (539) amassed a 3,033 total to be placed seventh – just 17 pins off the topfour cut.

Taiwan set the early pace with 3,141 followed by Colombia (3,127), Australia (3,102) and the host (3,050).