KENNETH Chua, one of the rising stars in Philippine bowling, put together two huge three-game series for a 1497 total to forge ahead in the Class O men’s singles and Masters qualifying events of the 41st PBC-PSC-POC Open championships Thursday at SM lanes in Mall of Asia, Pasay.
The 20-year-old Chua, a college senior at La Salle who has been bowling since he was eight years old, collected 727 and 770 to wipe out the 1424 of veteran Jong Enriquez, a fellow national kegler from Sletba, in singles and men’s Masters elimination.
“He’s definitely one of the bowlers to watch in this tournament,” said Girlie Solis, the deputy overall chair. “He’s been putting up big numbers in other local competitions.”
SJBA’s Carl Lim also shared the day’s honors by producing 1320 to wrest the Class A men’s singles lead from TBAM-Prima-UPHS’ Rosel de Leon, who dropped to second with 1295.
Lim recently won the Youth Masters crown in the tournament sponsored by the Philippine Sports Commission, Philippine Olympic Committee, Boysen, PCSO, Team Prima, FR Sevilla Construction, HCG and Enervon.
The other frontrunning bowlers—Liza del Rosario in Open ladies’ singles, Girlie Solis in Class A ladies’ singles, and Nilo Penado and Jhoana Lualhati in Class B men’s and ladies’ singles—kept their respective positions.
PBC president and event chair Ernesto “Toti” Lopa has limited the tournament to local bowlers in a bid to discover new talents for competitions like the Southeast Asian Games, Asian Games and the world championships.
“We need to develop new faces to regain our old glory in the sport,” said Lopa.