RI bowlers march to Aviva semis
RI bowlers march to Aviva semis
Zakki Hakim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Indonesian Lily Suhaimi and compatriot Happy Soediyono marched
to the ladies' semifinals of the US$25,000 Indonesian leg of the
2003 Aviva Asian Bowling Tour at the Jaya Ancol Bowl in Jakarta
on Sunday.
Lily notched seven strikes to outclass fellow Indonesian Putty
Armein 252-198 while Happy convincingly dismissed Alice Tai of
Singapore 245-183.
Ivana Hanjaya, the other Indonesian woman in the competition,
crashed out early on the day. The Lily-Putty game appeared to
draw much attention from spectators.
Putty began her turn with three consecutive strikes, but Lily
did not lose ground in keeping her opponent at bay, and while
Putty faltered in the remainder of the game, Lily ran hot with
seven strikes in a row.
Lily will now meet Vanessa Fung of Hong Kong, who earlier
edged out Malaysian Choy Poh Lai 215-192, while Happy will be
challenged by Singaporean Michelle Kwang, who scraped to a narrow
182-181 win over Malaysian Wendy Chai.
However, Indonesia was denied further contention in the men's
category. After Frans Tjandra's early exit, David Sitorus and
Ryan Lalisang failed in their second-round games, with the former
going down to Wu Siu Hong of Hong Kong 205-268, and the latter
falling to Yannaphon Larpapharat of Thailand 247-258.
The two winners will face each other in the semifinal. The
other semi will be an all-Filipino date as Joonee Gatchalian
defeated Mohammad Nadri of Malaysia 245-205 and Philippines-leg
winner Purvis Granger booked seven consecutive strikes to outplay
Australian Andrew Frawley 267-229.
The Indonesian competition is part of the six-leg Aviva Asia
Bowling Tour, which offers a total of US$226,000 in cash prizes.
The other five competitions are in Malaysia, Thailand, the
Philippines, Hong Kong and Singapore.
The tour will pick the top 16 apiece in the men's and women's
category for the Grand Slam finals in Singapore in January 2004.
Maxi Gunawan, president of the Indonesian Bowling Association
(PBI), said that Indonesia was tied to a 10-year contract with
the Aviva Asian Bowling Tour management.
"This is a good opportunity for local bowlers to gain
experience and increase their skills for the sake of national
bowling development," he said.