Rivera third in World Cup, Sparks hopes of Asiad redemption

TOULON, FRANCE—Engelberto “Biboy” Rivera ran into a red-hot Michael Schmidt of Canada in the semifinals Saturday and settled for the bronze medal in the 46th Qubica-AMF Bowling World Cup. 

Rivera, the 2006 World Masters champion, failed to keep up with the sizzling pace of Schmidt, who averaged 249.5 (247-252) to the 236.5 average (215-202) of the Filipino veteran in their best-of-three semifinal duel. 

Schmidt went on to capture the men’s title by downing top finalist Matt Miller of England. 

The 36-year-old Rivera, who led the first block of eliminations with a 236 average, said he was satisfied with his showing and expressed optimism over his coming Asian Games stint in Guangzhou, China, next month. 

“I’m pleased with my performance here,” said Rivera in a text message. “I learned a lot of things that I need to improve on.” 
Tournament’s top Asian 
He was the top Asian in the tournament with South Korean Park Jong-woo ending up sixth overall. 

Filipino bowlers failed to land a single medal in the Doha Asiad four years ago, with Rivera placing ninth overall. 

Marianne Daisy “Apple” Posadas also created a stir in her World Cup debut by finishing fifth in the women’s tournament that was won by Aumi Guerra of Dominican Republic over No. 1 seed Gye Min-young of South Korea, 2-1 (203-226, 202-196, 240-196) in the finals. 

Guerra gave her country its first World Cup title. She earned a shot at the Korean by ousting England’s Fiona Banks, 2-0 (237-223, 246-188) in the first stepladder match. 

American Carolyn Dorin Ballard ended up fourth. 

The 24-year-old Posadas placed second after the second block of the eliminations and went as high as fourth going into the women’s quarterfinals. 
Close match in first game 
The match between Rivera and Schmidt was close in the first game with both players going for a potential 247. But Rivera, working for a double in the ninth, left the 3-6 pins standing to give the Canadian the edge. 

The Filipino actually got the first strike, but he left the 3-6-10 combination on his second shot to open the door for Schmidt to move ahead, 1-0. 

Rivera, who needed to win the second game to force a decider, had a disastrous start in three of the first four frames. On the other hand, Schmidt was perfect through the first seven frames before a 4-6-7 split denied his bid for the first perfect game of this year’s World Cup competition. 

Schmidt failed to convert the split but, though Rivera threw four strikes in frames 5-8, game and match were over when the Filipino left a 2-pin standing on his first ball in the ninth frame. With a report from Marc Anthony Reyes