Paranaque sweeps Inter City bowling

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

With only a game to play, Putty Armein of Jakarta had the gold within her grasp on Wednesday's opening day of the 19th Asian Inter City Tenpin Bowling Championship.

A poor 174 allowed Cecilia Yap from defending champion Paranaque of the Philippines to pull ahead for the win.

The Philippine city cleaned up on the day, with Purvis Granger winning the men's singles.

Putty was 31 points ahead by the end of game five, the penultimate round, but Cecilia's final 223 was enough to pip the Indonesian.

The Filipino won with a total of 1,301, 18 pins better than Putty. Vanessa Fung of Hong Kong finished third with 1,213.

"My coach told me I was only 31 pins behind the leader (in game five), and that I could win, so naturally I went for it," said Cecilia, who is a member of the national squad. "The lanes were not easy but I kept telling myself to be patient."

Putty attributed her loss to poor finishing when it mattered most.

"I did my job very well in game four and five, but in the last game, I couldn't adapt to the lane."

Her inability to close out the big match was similar to her runner-up finish in the Indonesia International Open here last week.

Putty defeated all her Asian rivals in the regular games and step ladder finals, but in the final she failed to adapt to the lane in losing to Zara Glover of England.

In the men's singles, host Jakarta finished out of the medals, with Ryan Lalisang seventh with 1,291 and Yuyu Lie 15th with 1,230.

Granger won with 1,360 pins, followed by a tie for second at 1,309 between Zulmazran Zulkifli of Shah Alam, Malaysia, and Oh Young Ki of Uiwang, South Korea.

"I adapted very well with the lanes and I scored high in game two at 258 and game three with 277. That helped me win gold," said Granger, an American who coaches the national squad.

The men's and women's doubles will be played on Thursday, with the team of four contested on Friday.

The championship will end on Sunday.