IT’S a huge cheer for Malaysia after the national bowlers toppled traditional powerhouse South Korea to emerge as the overall winners of the Asian Championships in Kuwait yesterday.
Malaysia finished with a total of six gold, one silver and four bronze medals to upstage the Koreans who finished with a total of 3-4-3.
The entire Malaysian team bowled splendidly all week against the mighty Koreans who had ruled the Asian championships in the last five editions.
And it was veteran Esther Cheah who delivered the icing on the cake after she displayed nerves of steel to clinch the women’s masters gold for Malaysia’s sixth of the campaign.
The former world champion was right on the mark as she edged out South Korea’s Jung Da-won 452-445 in the stepladder finals.
The 33-year-old Selangor-born had started the day as the overnight leader after the first block of action on Monday.
She was again consistent enough through the second block, rolling down a total of 4,059 to be the top seed, entering the stepladder finals.
It was still a huge challenge with two-time masters winner Da-won (4,001) and 2016 silver medallist Baek Sung-ja (3,954) placing second and third respectively after the second block.
After Da-won had beaten out compatriot Sung-ja 245-244 in the semi-finals, Esther knew she had to rise to the occasion. And she duly delivered, taking the first game 208-201 before tying the Korean at 244-all in the second game for the seven-pin win.
The gold was Esther’s second gold in the meet following her trios triumph with Shalin Zulkifli and Sin Li Jane.
‘I’m really grateful and thankful to God for this win. I didn’t really throw good shots in the final but the pins still fell my way,’said Esther.‘I’m thankful to my dad (national coach Holloway), who was behind me the whole time during the masters final.
‘I also cannot forget the support of the team manager, the National Sports Institute and my teammates who were all behind me as well.’
The men’s bowlers fell short of nailing a medal in the masters event as Timmy Tan, Ahmad Muaz Fishol and Muhammad Hafiz Zainuddin finished fifth, sixth and 11th respectively.
But it has still been a good outing with Timmy winning the men’s singles and all-events gold earlier. The other gold medals were won by Shalin Zulkifli (women’s singles), the men and women’s trios.
‘This is really a sweet finish as South Korea have always been the team to beat. It’s an amazing feat by the team and we’ve proven that we have depth in both the men and women’s squads,’said team manager Maradona Chok.