INQUIRER Sports

MANILA, Philippines - Krizziah Tabora cut loose with a performance that allowed her to grab the top spot in two categories even as Chester King regained the lead Thursday night in the 38th Philippine international tenpin bowling championships at Paeng?s Midtown Bowl in Malate.

Tabora grabbed the spotlight on a day when everybody started bracing for the arrival of the foreign campaigners led by US Pro rookie and World Champion Tim Mack?who is due here over the weekend, according to organizers.

Joining Mack is 2007 Philippine Open winner Wu Siu Hong of Hong Kong, and current Asian Ranked No. 1 Hussain Al-Suwaidi of United Arab Emirates.

Tabora, who at 18 is the defending ladies open masters champ, bowled a three-game series of 719 on lines of 226-269-224 for a 239.6 average pinfalls in the open singles.

Tabora, however, was more spectacular in the open youth masters, nailing a 1,338 aggregate to grab the lead there as she continued to reap the benefits of a training stint at the Kegel Bowling Center in Florida last year.

Trailing Tabora is Dyan Coronacion with a 1,185.

In the men?s open, King, the double-gold winner in the Asian championships last year, once again took the lead with a 1,392 total to sideline erstwhile leader Biboy Rivera (1,388). Paulo Valdez remained at third with 1,373.

Veteran national bowler Liza del Rosario firmed up her grip of the open masters with 1,304 pinfalls. Trailing her were fellow Nationals Kim Lao (1,272) and Apple Posadas (1,243).

New leaders in the 16-day event were PTBA?s Audi Castro (1280) in men?s graded masters, MTBA?s Kenneth Piedad (1218) in men?s associate masters; PTBA?s Jojie Cabacungan in ladies? associate masters; PBAP?s Brown Yoon (1307) and PBA?s Mila Robles (1175) in men?s and ladies senior masters.