SAFUAN Said saw his dreams of a hat-trick of world titles end after his semi-final exit at the World Bowls Singles Champion of Champions tournament in Aberdeen, Scotland yesterday.

Mark Weaver of Wales scored an 11-1, 12-6 win over World No 1 Safuan at Westburn Park in the event which is open only to the national champions of the 46 countries where the sport is played.

Safuan, who won the World Cup in April to add to his World Championship win three months earlier, was bidding to become the first lawn bowler to hold all three world titles at the same time.

The 25-year-old Safuan was the first to qualify for the quarter-finals from section two of the preliminary round, which began on Monday, by winning his first seven matches.

With qualification assured, Safuan took it easy in his remaining matches and lost to Ratish Lal of Fiji, Norfolk Island's Phil Jones and Leo Carreon of the Philippines to finish fourth in his section with a 7-3 win-loss record.
That set up a quarter-final meeting on Friday with Scotland's Sandy Wotherspoon, who had the best preliminary round record of 9-2, but Safuan still cruised to an 8-4, 9-5 win.

Safuan's run ended when he came up against Welsh champion Weaver on the heavy British greens which were not quite to the Malaysian's liking compared to the regular fast surfaces at home in Bukit Kiara.

Malaysian women's champion Nor Shafeeqah Yahya failed to make the knockout stages after finishing seventh in section two with a 5-5 record.

Nor Shafeeqah, who beat two-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist Siti Zalina Ahmad to earn her ticket to Aberdeen, was well placed to reach the quarter-finals after winning four of her first six matches but three defeats in her final four matches saw her miss out on a top-four finish in her section.