Kuala Lumpur, Sunday 25 March 2007: The 30th Malaysian International Open Bowling Championship, held at the Sunway Pyramid Mega Lanes - venue of Bowling’s historic appearance of bowling at the Commonwealth Games in 1998 - coincided with the celebration of VISIT MALAYSIA YEAR 2007.
Hosted by the MTBC from 11-24 March, and billed as the biggest and richest tenpin bowling championship ever staged in Asia, the event attracted some of the world’s top bowlers, including defending Women’s champion Diandra Asbaty from the USA and a legion of medallists from the Asian Games, held late last year in Qatar.
Australia’s Jason Belmonte was amongst the star-studded field of international bowlers invited to participate in this year’s event and following a stunning victory at the same venue at the 7th Milo International All Stars in December and his recent "High Roller" title in Las Vegas, Belmonte was tipped to be amongst the top placings at the Malaysian Open.
And the predictions were correct. Despite extremely dry, and short oil lane conditions that defied the skill of many of the world’s best, "Belmo" emerged from 16 games of matchplay in third position, just 11 pins behind Korea’s Choi Bok Eum, with Korean Joung Seong Joo, top seed, a mere 10 pins ahead of his teammate.
An impressive 266 game in the second match of Saturday’s stepladder final saw Belmonte overtake Choi Bok Eum and home-town favourite Alex Liew of the Malaysian national team to advance to the grand final. Despite a gutter ball in the eighth frame of the final match, an initial string of seven strikes gave Joung Seong Joo an unassailable lead and the Korean, who was making his debut appearance at the Malaysian Open, went on to claim the title from Belmonte, 250-225.
In the Women’s division, No 1 seed, Zandra Aziela from Malaysia maintained her outstanding matchplay form of a 235.13 average to clinch her first international title, posting a 224-197 win against Singapore’s Daphne Tan in the stepladder final. Malaysian youngsters Siti Safiyah Amirah and Zatil Iman finished in third and fourth place, ahead of United States bowler Diandra Asbaty.
Today, the inaugural CANON CUP was contested in a head-to-head matchplay format between Malaysia’s top three men and two women, based on placings in the Malaysian Open, and their overseas counterparts who formed a ‘Rest of the World’ team. Malaysia’s Alex Liew and Australia’s Jason Belmonte were named captains of the respective teams and the match was broadcast live on Astro Supersport to an estimated 40 million viewers worldwide.
The first match was won by ‘Rest of the World’ team member Choi Bok Eum from Korea who defeated Malaysia’s Daniel Lim 227-200. An open frame in the second by Singapore’s Amanda Ng assisted Malaysian Open champion Zandra Aziela to a 224-195 win in the second match, while Malaysia’s Alex Liew shot the event high game to overcome Korean Jeong Seong Joo 258-225 in the third game. ‘Rest of the World’ player Daphne Tan from Singapore brought the five-match contest to a delicate balance by defeating Malaysia’s Siti Safiyah Amirah 247-224, setting up a thrilling final match between anchormen Zulmazran Zulkifli from Malaysia and Jason Belmonte from Australia.
Belmonte raced ahead with a turkey in the first three frames, extending his lead to a comfortable 99-63 by the fourth frame after Zulkifli opened, and despite a determined fight-back by the Malaysian, Belmonte sealed the game, trophy and prizemoney for the ‘Rest of the World’ team with a decisive 231-199 win over Zulkifli.
"It was awesome…really, really cool - I couldn’t have written the script better myself!" Belmonte exclaimed as he dashed away following the Canon Cup victory ceremony to escort his fiancé Kimberly to the airport for her trip home to Australia this evening. Belmonte remains in Kuala Lumpur tonight then flies on to the Philippines to compete in the 5th Euro-Med Storm International Masters Challenge in Parañaque City later this week.
Story...Lynne Clay
) 266 to 187 and 235.
