Some cheer in Vietnam thanks to Li Jane and Fatin

PETALING JAYA: After a string of poor results in the singles event, the national back-up bowlers finally bagged a silver and a bronze in the doubles event of the Asian Indoor Games in Vietnam yesterday.

Sin Li Jane and Fatin Syazliana Adi Nasution were denied the gold medal when they lost 393-432 to the South Korean combination of Son Yun-hee-Jeon Eun-hee in the final.

Saviours: Sin Li Jane partnered Fatin Syazliana (inset) to earn a silver medal in the doubles event at the Asian Indoor Games in Vietnam yesterday.

Earlier in the semi-finals, Sharon Koh-Tengku Emanina Laily Tengku Zahri had to settle for the bronze after losing to Li Jane-Fatin 365-407.

With the medals won thus far, the team have equalled their previous medal tally achieved at the Macau Asian Indoor Games in 2007 when Zatil Iman Abdul Ghani took the silver medal in the singles event and the women’s team bagged the bronze.

In the singles competitions on Sunday, both the boys and girls failed to make the cut for the knockout stages.

The best Malaysian performer was Rodson Tong, who finished ninth with lines of 233-208-204-215-237-212 for a total of 1309.

Mohd Syafiq Ridhwan could only muster a total score of 1275 for 16th place, Kang Bo Leong (1252) 26th spot and Kelvin Keong (1165) 44th place.

In the girls’ competition, Sharon finished with a total score of 1171 to end up in 14th place. Fatin (1157) was 17th, Li Jane (1128) 32nd and Tengku Emanina (1100) 35th.

Bo Leong-Kelvin and Rodson-Syafiq also failed to finish in the top eight to qualify for the knockout stages of the boys’ doubles competition on Tuesday when they finished in 21st and 23rd places respectively.

“Their performance was below par in the singles event as most of them were nervous during the game,” said team coach Ben Heng. “They made unnecessary mistakes which proved costly.”

Ben said the girls finally got their act together to put up a solid performance in the doubles event.

“I hope they can continue with the momentum in the team event tomorrow (today) and bring back a gold medal,” he said.

The bowlers will play two blocks of three games over two days before advancing to the elimination round on Saturday. STAR