Bowler Frederick Ong Masters frontrunner

JAKARTA—Frederick Ong, a Southeast Asian Games rookie, is well on track to becoming the most decorated athlete for the Philippines in these competitions.

The 29-year-old kegler is pacing the field in the men’s Masters with 1,849 pinfalls after the first of two blocks—the long oil— Saturday afternoon at the Ancol Lanes here, leading veteran teammate Biboy Rivera by 43 pints and Malaysian Muhd Syafiq Ridhwan by 82.

“It’s good that we had a good start,” Ong, a marine insurance underwriter, told the Inquirer. “But we still have a block to go (short oil) and we must be able to sustain our performance.”

Ong had already won a gold medal—in the men’s singles last Tuesday—and helped the Philippines to the silver in the men’s doubles with Rivera, another silver in the teams of five and a bronze in the male trios.

The finals of the Masters will be held Sunday and Ong would like nothing more than a shot at another gold to give him the most medals by any Filipino here, even surpassing the two gold medals that cue artist Iris Ranola won.

Ranola bagged the 8- and 9-ball singles, clinching her second gold at the expense of the celebrated former world champion Rubilen Amit, 7-2.

Ong ended the first block with an average of 222, coming up with a high of 255 in the second game and a low of 181 in the first.

Rivera, the 2006 world champion and Guangzhou Asian Games gold medalist, started poorly, rolling just 174 in the opening game before rebounding with games that included a 256 in the eighth and making it 1-2 for the Philippines’ running.