Abang Afiq (left) and Jun Foo pose with their prizes.
KUCHING (April 16): Top seed Yuki Murahama of Japan captured the Open division title of the recent 1st Formosa International Classic at DongDong Bowling Alley, Taoyuan in Taiwan after defeating Johnathan Chan of Malaysia 217-200 in the final.
Chan had earned a crack at the title after ousting second seed Abang Afiq Yazid Abang Azman of Dotmod and winner of the first stepladder match, Chong Jun Foo of Sarawak, 224-202-184 in an all-Malaysia second stepladder match.
Fourth seed Chong won the first stepladder match with victory over fifth seed Jovan Chua of Singapore and Muhammad Adam Darwish of Pulau Penang, 244-206-192 to move into the semi-finals.
Murahamad, who earned a whopping NT$350,000 (about RM51,720) as champion, ended the Round 2 finals as top seed with a six-game total of 1,459 pins.
Abang Afiq finished second with 1,389 pins, 70 pins adrift while Chan took third spot with 1,386 pins followed by Chong in fourth with 1,367 pins.
Chua and Muhammad Adam made the cut for the stepladder finals in fifth and sixth positions with an identical total of 1,359 pins.
Chan took home NT$175,000 (about RM25,860) and Abang Afiq pocketed NT$100,000 (about RM14,777) as first and second runners-up.
In the earlier Round 1 finals, Chan topped the round with 1,401 pins followed by Chua in second with 1,386 pins and Abang Afiq third with 1,379 pins.
Haziq of Team Junior Kegler, Malaysia survived the cut in 26th position with 1,234 pins while 2017 World Championships gold medalist Xu Zhe Jia of Chinese Taipei missed the cut by two pins in 27th position.
A total of 260 bowlers participated in this inaugural international classic where they played three blocks of six games each which was divided into four squads.
Varying number of bowlers made the finals in four separate divisions based on their 18 games bowled.