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.