INQUIRER Sports

LAS VEGAS ? The Filipinos came up empty-handed again after the trios? competitions of the World Women?s Tenpin Bowling Championships here Friday (Saturday in Manila).

Already lagging behind after the first three games last Thursday, both RP trios fell by the wayside at the conclusion of the six-game preliminaries of the event that lured 228 players from a record 45 countries.

The highly-touted troika of Liza del Rosario, Liza Clutario and Krizziah Tabora, the 2008 RP Open ladies? masters champion, combined for 3,555 pinfalls, and wound up in 29th place.

The other team composed of Apple Posadas, Kim Lao and Rachelle Leon landed 31st after finishing with a 3,548 tally.

?The lanes continued to be difficult to read,? said national coach Jojo Canare. ?But it?s over so we?re focusing on the team-of-fives, where I hope we can do better.?

The team event eliminations and medal round are set for Saturday.

Canare has picked Del Rosario to be the lead-off bowler in today?s event, followed by Posadas, Lao, Tabora and Clutario, in that order.

When the trios resumed, a shaky fourth game by Del Rosario, Clutario and Tabora all but dashed the Filipinos? hopes of finishing among the top four teams and advancing to the medal round as they carded a woeful 179, 185 and 172, respectively.

A singles bronze medalist in last week?s World Games in Kaohshiung, Taiwan, Del Rosario struggled in the fifth game, leaving her first three frames open but recovered with four strikes in a row en route to scoring 202.