Timmy Tan and Sin Li Jane are the new King and Queen of Asian bowling.
Following several fine performances, the 24-year-old Timmy and Li Jane topped the men and women’s Asian ranking list, which was released by the Asian Bowling Federation (ABF) yesterday.
This can be considered an outstanding effort as the national bowlers only competed in seven out of the 16 ranking tournaments this year.
It is also Malaysia’s first sweet double since 2005, achieved by Alex Liew and the now-retired Wendy Chai.
The achievement comes after the entire bowling team were criticised for failing to meet the four-gold target at the recent Philippines Sea Games.
Instead of harping on the failure in Manila, the sports fraternity should now rejoice and congratulate the Malaysian Tenpin Bowling Congress (MTBC) for their well-oiled efforts in producing countless Asian and world-class bowlers.
Timmy earned 397 points to top the men’s section, followed by Indonesia’s Ryan Lalisang (333) and Thailand’s Annop Arromsaranon (257).
Malaysia’s Ahmad Muaz Fishol (255) and Rafiq Ismail (245) finished fourth and fifth respectively.
Timmy had a brilliant season with several eye-catching performances, including achieving double gold medals each at the Asian Championships (singles and all events) in Kuwait in October and the Sea Games (singles and men’s team).
As for Li Jane, who also topped the women’s rankings in 2014, the 27-year-old produced consistent performances throughout the season.
Her most notable result was helping Malaysia win the Asian meet trios title. The Perak-born, who topped the women’s list with 344 points, also finished on the podium at the Malaysia Open, Sea Games and other events in the Asian Championships.
South Korea’s Lee Na Young finished second behind Li Jane on 316 points, followed by Singapore’s Cherie Tan (295), while Malaysia’s Shalin Zulkifli (288), Siti Safiyah Amirah Abdul Rahman (283) and Esther Cheah (220) were placed fourth, fifth and seventh respectively.
“It feels great to top the women’s list for the second time. I worked so hard this year to achieve my targets.
“Frankly, I was not keeping tabs with the ranking list as I was only focused on doing well in tournaments.
“I am delighted that Timmy also topped the men’s list. It is a rare sweet double for the country and I hope this will further motivate the entire bowling team to achieve more next season.
“I will keep on working hard both in training and competitions.
“There will be two major competitions — the Asian Championships and World Singles Championships — next year, and I will try to make the teams for both events.
“As a bowler, I do not set too many targets for myself. My only goal is to perform at my best in every tournament I compete in,” said Li Jane.
MTBC secretary-general Maradona Chok said: “It was an emotion-filled season with our best result being at the Asian meet where we won the overall title with six gold.
“And with Timmy and Li Jane ending the year as Asia’s No 1 in the men and women’s categories, it sums up our great season.
“We were pegged as a failure for not meeting the four-gold target at the Sea Games. However, we tried out best and missed out on gold in several events by small margins.
“Anyway, we will work harder in the hope of becoming stronger next season,” said Maradona.