Singapore’s girls clinch team gold at Asian Youth Bowling Championships
A fired-up Singapore girls’ team turned on the style to win their first title at the Asian Youth Tenpin Bowling Championships in Bangkok on Monday and erased their earlier disappointment.
The team of Arianne Tay, Ning Tay, Alyssa Koh and Colleen Pee knocked down 4,876 pinfalls to beat South Korea (4,729) and Malaysia (4,524) after managing minor places on the podium in the other events earlier.
Tay, who had a silver in the singles and a bronze with Pee in the doubles, said: “I think it’s a really big accomplishment because personally, I came to this competition with the main goal of winning the team gold medal with my teammates.
“So I’m just really, really happy and grateful that we could accomplish this goal that we set for ourselves.”
Tay also won her second bronze in the all events with 3,635 pinfalls, behind South Koreans Choi Yu-rin (3,798) and Oh Hyun-ji (3,704).
Tay, Pee and Ning were in the team who won gold at the International Bowling Federation’s (IBF) U-21 World Championships in Sweden in 2022, but the bowlers felt the competition was even tougher in Bangkok.
“I think we really had to put up a fight,” said Tay.
“The format is very different compared to the IBF world championships because the competition was split into two days.”
Pee admitted winning the bronze in the doubles pushed them even harder in the team event.
“It really helped to boost our morale as a team together,” she said.
“It helped our growth a lot as we can really help each other to figure out what to do on the lanes.”
Tay also credited national head coach Helmi Chew for his role in their success.
She said: “When things are not going well, when the team are down, morale is low, scores are not super high, coach Helmi will call us together, give a short pep talk as a way to just break that trend, that downward spiral.”
All four girls have also qualified for the girls’ Masters finals on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The morale is high after the team gold, with Tay vowing to continue fighting.
“After this team gold, I’m really quite content but the four of us made it to the Masters so all of us will just continue fighting,” she said.
“If you can add another medal or two for Singapore, I think all of us will be pretty happy.”
The Singapore boys’ team finished fourth behind champions Philippines, South Korea and Thailand, with Aiman Lim qualifying for the boys’ Masters.
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