Sep 25
Midtown Bowl, Manila, Philippines
Courtesy of BowlingDigital.com
Two-time Asian Youth Games gold medalist Michael Mak of Hong Kong, out averaged his nearest competitor in the Round of 24 by almost 14 pins to lead the top 8 players into the match play portion of the 7th Euro-Med Storm International Masters Challenge.
Michael Mak (left) Cha Mi-Jung (centre) Aaron Kong (right)
Mak had a slow start into the 8 game block starting from scratch with 199 and 201, then fired games of 238, 288, 279, 257, 257 and 238 to finish atop the leaderboard with 1957 8-game total and an average of 244.63.
Korean women’s pro bowler Cha Mi-Jung, who rolled the tournament’s first 300 game in the qualifying, was a distant second with 1866 including 8 pins handicap per game. Round of 48 leader, Zulmazran Zulkifli, Malaysia, was third with 1847.
His fellow countryman, Aaron Kong, made the cut in fifth place with 1838 followed by Hussain Al-Suwaidi in sixth place with 1823.
Three of the top eight spots belonged to PBA bowlers. 2-time PBA champion and 2007-09 PBA Rookie of the Year, Rhino Page was fourth with 1840, with 2006-07 PBA Player of the Year, Doug Kent in seventh at 1817 and 2009 USBC Masters champion John Nolen in 8th at 1814.
Those 8 will determine the four finalists in round robin match play over seven games plus position round, once again starting from scratch (10 pins bonus per win, 5 for a tie).
The top 4 will advance to the stepladder finals. No. 4 bowls No. 3 and the winner takes on No. 2. The winner of the semifinal match must defeat the top seed twice to win the title. The winner will walk away with one million Philippine Peso or approx. 21,000 U.S. Dollar.
