SEA Games: Filipino bowlers salvage silver, bronze medals

SEAGames Bowling /December 06,2019
The Philippines team of Four in jubilation ,at the Coranado Lanes at Starmall in mandaluyong .
INQUIRER PHOTO/AUGUST DELA CRUZ

MANILA, Philippines–Once the undisputed kingpin of bowling in the region, the Philippines was happy with a silver and a bronze on Friday in the men’s and women’s teams of four in the 30th Southeast Asian Games at the Coronado Lanes in Staramall, Mandaluyong.

Patrick Nuqui bowled a 256 and veteran Frederick Ong a 243 to power the Filipinos’ final game 886 and snatch second place from a fading Thailand. The effort, however, fell short of Malaysia, which took the gold.

Riding on a powerful 896 in the final game, Malaysia totaled 4980 for six games while the Filipinos scored 4937. Thialand settled for the bronze with 4896.

Merwin Tan pitched in a 208 and Kenneth Chua added an anemic 179 to the Filipinos’ final game total.

The silver was the best finish by Filipinos since Ong captured the men’s singles gold and carried his team to 4 silvers and one bronze in 2011.

The Filipinos settled for the bronze in the four-woman team after leading the field in the first three-game block. They lost the lead to Singapore in the fourth game and needed the 225 of Bea Hernandez and the 203 of Alexis Sy in the final game to salvage the bronze.

The Singaporeans took the women’s gold with 4833 after turning back the final game-challenge of Malaysia, who took the bronze with a 4803 total. The Filipinas, unable to get a lift from a slumping Lisa del Rosario, had a 4735 total for the bronze.

Lara Posadas Wong contributed 193, but Del Rosario, who could not score a game in the 200s, sank to a 147 in the final game.

“At least we were not zero,” said Senate President Tito Sotto, a former World Cup and SEA Games campaigner who had been cheering the Philippine team since bowling competitions started on Thursday.

The Filipinos, once virtually unbeatable in bowling in the region, failed to win a medal in the men’s and women’s single and doubles when bowling competition in the Games started on Thursday.

Bong Coo, another Filipino bowling great, expressed the hope that the Filipinos could win a gold in the Masters event starting Saturday.

A gold, which the Filipinos have not won since 2011, is “reachable,” said Coo. “We have just started.”

Slugging it out with the competition’s’ top 16 bowlers in the all-events are Merwin Tan and Patrick Nuqui, who qualified eighth and 13th, respectively. Chua barely missed the cut and was 17th while Ong was 21st.

Bea Hernandez landed third in the all-events in the women’s class and will spearhead the Philippines bid in the masters. Alexis Sy (9th) and Lara Posadas Wong was 16th and also made the cut. Liza del Rosario, the most bemedalled member of the entire Philippine team, missed the cut at 17th. She had a 24-game average of 192, pulled down by Friday’s six-game average of only 168.5.

The Masters event will be played over 16 games Saturday with the top three in each division clashing for the medals in the step-ladder finals.