Double Joy by M'sian Youths @ S'pore Open

Hi Guys,
It's a double joy for our young Malaysians !.

After capturing the Youth Open titles at Malaysian International Open Championships 2011 at Sunway Mega Lanes last week, our young Malaysians continued the momentum to stamp their supremacy in wresting another identical victory in the Youth divisions.

Our Malaysian youths completed a clean sweep of the Youth Open Masters titles of the 44th Singapore International Open with Aris Ardilla and Chong Jun Foo finishing one-two in the boy's division; while Syaidatul Afifah, Faten Najihah, Fatin Azmira and Steffira Zeandea rocket up the top four podium finish in the girl's division.

2010 Asian Youth gold medalist, Aris Ardilla set a cracking pace to take an early lead with his sizzling opening game of 253 but soon found himself trailing Aussie Sam Cooley after the second game.

Singapore's Jovi Ang made his bid by taking over the running after the third game but could not keep up the pace set by Aris after the Malaysian regained the lead at the halfway mark. Despite losing the lead briefly to team-mate, Chong Jun Foo after the fifth game, a re-vitalized Aris went on to end the 8-game finals with 1709 to capture the title.

Chong made a late charge in his final game but finished 19 pins behind the champion with 1690 while Cooley took third spot with 1671, a further 19 pins away.

Singapore's Jonathan Ang stormed home to snatch fourth spot with 1609 to edge early pace-setter, Jovi into fifth position with 1597.

Other Malaysian youths, Johnathan Chan (8th), Khoo Beng Khai (10th), Ahmad Muaz (13th), Muhd Syafiq Sajeli (14th) and Syimir Abd Razak (15th).

The Malaysian girls were much more superior than their boys counterpart sweeping the finals with the top four places. Syaidatul Afifah took a convincing victory to win her second international youth title after her triumph in Taiwan and Penang last year.

Syaidatul, who took over the lead after the third game, amassed a total of 1604, 49 pins ahead of Faten Najihah in second with 1555. Early pace-setter and pint-sized, Fatin Azmira settled for third with 1545 while Steffira Zeandea completed the top 4 for Malaysia with 1513.

Singapore's best finisher was Girl's Under-18 first runner-up, Tracy See in fifth position with 1485. Tengku Emanina Laily (6th), Puteri Nadia (8th), Natasha Roslan (9th) and Radin Nur Najwa (12th) were the other Malaysian finalists.

Aris Ardilla won S$1,000 for his effort, Chong and Cooley taking home S$600 and S$400 while Syaidatul, Faten, Fatin and Steffira all won S$800, S$600, S$300 and S$200 respectively.

Photos courtesy of Terence Yaw.

Regards,
BC Cheah
Orchid Bowl
Singapore