Tenpin bowling will stay as an elite sport programme at the Sports Institute (SI), thanks to Eric Tseng Tak-hin and Cyrus Cheung Chun-chung.
The pair clinched a gold medal in the men's doubles at the Asian Championships with a record breaking 2,750 points after six games at the Hong Kong Bowling City at Kowloon Bay. Other than bringing Hong Kong the first medal of the tournament, the result earned the sport sufficient points to get past the elite vote support benchmark of nine.
'The new Sports Institute will see a brand new 12-lane bowling facility and if the sport was out of the programme it would have been very disappointing,' said Vivien Fung Lau Chiang-chu, chairwoman of the Tenpin Bowling Congress.
One of the 11 elite programmes at the Sports Institute, tenpin bowling faced the axe after failing to meet the selection criteria at the latest review, two years ago. If they had failed again after a review in December, they would have been kicked out of the institute from next April.
But they have met the requirements, which were to win a medal in an Asian event, or for two junior athletes and one senior athlete to score nine points in an event.
Team member Wu Siu-hong looked forward to some better results after his colleagues achieved the required standard.