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Bowled over by Asians

Asian tenpin bowlers show how one day they will match the best after the region's youth dominated the world championships Asian bowlers proved the most successful of the continental zones, among the 31 countries taking part in the Fourth FIQ World Youth Tenpin Bowling Championships in Hong Kong recently.

Competition started with a bang, and ended with the young bowlers showing they could one day match the world's best.

The first day of competition at the South China Athletic Association bowling centre began with American Tommy Jones bowling a perfect game - or 300 points - in the boy's singles event.

Jones did not figure prominently in the overall standings in his event as Japan's Masaru Ito beat his rivals with a total pinfall of 1,313 after six games.

The Japanese student beat Korea's Lee Sang-hun and American Robert Smith who had 1,302 and 1,300 pinfalls.

The girls' singles was won by Colombia's Sara Vargas who easily beat Malaysia's Sarah Yap with 1,289. Yap had to settle for second place on 1,263, while the Netherland's Wendy Verhoeven was third, 14 points behind in 1,249.

Japan won gold for the second time during the week when they showed their dominance in the girls doubles. Tomie Kawaguchi and Tomomi Shibata left their rivals trailing with a total pinfall of 2,411. They beat another Japanese pair, Miyuki Yamamoto and Shima Washizaka who scored 2,407. Malaysia's Sarah Yap and Shalin Zulkifli were third on 2,378.

The boys' doubles was won by Venezuela's Richard Leon and Nicola Petrillo on 2,510, with Paul Evans and Paul Delaney of England second, and Michael Mullin and Jeremy Sonnenfeld of the United States third.

Again Asian bowlers prevailed in the team events where Taiwan won the boys team event (four bowlers), and Malaysia was another close second. The US took third place.

Although Hong Kong bowlers failed to match their rivals, the territory did make some sort of history by becoming the second Asian country to host World Youth Tenpin Bowling Championships.

Taking part in the tournament were youth players aged under 23 years from the American, Asian and European Zones.

Countries taking part were: Australia, Bahrain, Brazil, Chinese Taipei, Canada, China, Colombia, Ecuador, Great Britain, Guam, Guatemala, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Macau, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Saipan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, the United States and Venezuela.

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