World Games runner-up Glover leads Indonesia Open

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Zara Glover came all the way from England with her own special strategy for the 3rd Indonesia International Open Tenpin Bowling Championship.

She brought three bowling balls along with her, and alternates their use every day.

It has worked so far: She led on Thursday in the Women's Open final, while two local bowlers recovered from poor starts to enter the top six at Jaya Ancol bowling center in North Jakarta.

"It is a good start for me and tomorrow I hope I could play like I did today," Glover said after her eighth game.

Glover was the runner-up in the 2005 World Games, the multi- event competition for sports that are not featured in the Olympic Games.

The 23 year old scored 1,828 in eight games to lead the overall standings, followed by K N Lai of Malaysia with 1,817 and last year's champion Liza Del Rosario of the Philippines (1,809).

Putty Armein of Indonesia was fourth with 1,758, Zandra Aziela of Malaysia fifth (1,753) and Novie Phang of Indonesia sixth (1,729).

Liza got off to a slow start, scoring only 190 in the first game.

"I threw much better in the later games," she said.

Indonesian hopeful Putty Armein, who won the Indonesia leg of Asian Bowling Federation (ABF) Tour last year, also got off to a slow start.

"My aim was there but I had problems with corner pins," she said. "Until game five I did not move up, but I played better in the last three games."

Putty was ninth in the third game, and dropped a place after the sixth game, but picked up her game to reach the top four after the eighth game.

The men's bowlers were still playing in the evening, with local player Ryan Lalisang among the favorites.

On Friday, the bowlers will play eight more games, with the top six players to compete to determine the winner.

Meanwhile, in the men's graded A final on Wednesday, Edwin Loe of Indonesia won the title after 12 games. He scored 2,629 pins, followed by Mat Salleh Jalani of Malaysia with 2,595 and Micky Un of Malaysia (2,575).

In the women's division, 15-year-old Gina Lim of Singapore won the Rp 6 million top prize with 2,410 pins. Trixie de Luna of the Philippines was second with 2,375 and Nur Amelia of Malaysia was third with 2,365.

"I competed here last year and only managed to finish second in the ladies' graded B final and lost by 1 pin in the junior under-15, so I'm very happy to win this time round," Gina, who targeted a top three finish, was quoted as saying by the event organizer.