Best ever tenpin bowling result as Hong Kong men’s trios claim gold at World Championships in Las Vegas

Trio defeats rivals Taiwan 659-610 in an all-Asian final

Hong Kong Sports Institute

Chan Kin-wa

Published: 1:46pm, 4 Dec 2017

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Hong Kong won their first ever gold medal at the World Championships in Las Vegas on Sunday, a breakthrough in the sport with their third medal at the world’s biggest tenpin bowling event.

Featuring Eric Tseng Tak-hin, Wu Siu-hong and Michael Mak Cheuk-yin, they defeated rivals Taiwan 659-610 in an all-Asian championship final. The Taiwanese were headed by all-events champion, Wu Hao-Ming but were still unable to stop the in-form Hong Kong team.

Hong Kong, however, needed to go through a nail bitting match when they defeated Finland in the semi-finals that went down to the last shot before prevailing over Finland’s Joonas Jahi, Niko Oksanen and Petteri Salonen, in a narrow 616-613 win.

Hong Kong men’s trios at the prize presentation.

Hong Kong’s anchor Wu doubled in the 10th frame while Finland’s anchor and all-events silver medallist Salonen gave their opponents the open frame they needed when he left and failed to convert the 3-10 split.

“It’s a massive result not only for the players but the sport,” said Tenpin Bowling Congress chairperson Vivien Lau Chiang-Chu. “Other than the gold medal, we have won also a silver and a bronze medals in Las Vegas. Thanks to the hard work of all the players and coaching staff, we have achieved a result that makes Hong Kong proud.”

Silver medallist in the men’s doubles, Lau Kwan-ho (L) and Tseng Tak-hin.

Hong Kong’s previous best result at the Worlds was a bronze medal by Catherine Che in the women’s singles in 1995 but the record was levelled by Chan Shuk-han when she won the same medal in Las Vegas last week. Chan’s success was followed by a silver in the men’s doubles through Tseng and Lau Kwan-ho, while Wu is still challenging for a medal in the men’s masters.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Breakthrough for gold at world championships

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