Liza bags crown in PBAP Int’l Classic

Asian Bowler of the Year Liza del Rosario kept the momentum of her fine showing in the three-day qualifer and beat Kerwin Law, 193-174, in the stepladder finals to bag the Classified divison crown in the PBAP Bevida-Storm International Classic at Pearl Bowling Center in Baclaran Tuesday.

Del Rosario, also the Asian Bowling Tour Grand Slam champion, finished on top of the field of 24 bowlers with a score of 1723 over the eight-game semifinals before defeating Law of TBAM.

Law, the runner-up and fifth-seed, won the first match after beating fourth-seed Willie Natividad (148) of MTBA and last year’s champion and sixth-seed Tang Joh Six (213) of CPS Bowl, Malaysia with 246.

Law then went on to edge second-seed and World Championship gold medalist Liza Clutario (192) and third-seed Wayne Huang (177) of Chinese Taipei with 195 before bowing to Del Rosario, who represented Columbia300, Boysen Paints and PBAP.

Dominic Dee (TPE-1620), Jojo Canare (SLETBA-Ebonite-1602), Ernie Cheng (TPE-1592) and Gilbert Salazar (PBAP-Bowlmart-1582) finished seventh to 10th positions, respectively, in the semifinals.

Meanwhile, in the Open division, ABF Tour Philippines leg champion Alex Liew of Malaysia and Columbia300 nipped youth division champion Wu Hao-Ming of Chinese Taipei, 232-228, to capture the PBAP Bevida-Storm International Classic title.

The 28-year-old top seed and pro shop supervisor, narrowly beat his challenger, Wu Hao-Ming of Chinese Taipei by just four pins. The win gave Liew his second title in Manila this year after capturing the ABF Tour Philippines leg title in May.

Wu, who finished third in the eight-game semifinals, knocked out second-seed Ryan Lalisang (190) and R.J. Bautista (219), winner of the first stepladder match, with a high game of 250.

Bautista settled for third after he ousted fifth-seed and reigning AMF World Cup champion C.J. Suarez (221) and ABT Grand Slam champion Purvis Granger (219) in a hotly-contested match with 226.

Liew had earlier topped the semifinals with a score of 1919 followed by Ryan Lalisang in second with 1886 while Wu Hao-Ming took third spot with 1859. Bautista (1853), Suarez (1851) and Granger (1783) made the cut for the stepladder finals in fourth to sixth positions.

Chen Chien-Han (TPE-1766), Sandy Cotoco (PHI-1757), David Wong (SIN-1728) and Tang Joh Six (MAS-1727) finished in the top 10.

In the youth division, four-gold medalist of the 18th Asian Championship Wu Hao-Ming of Chinese Taipei continued his fine form to rule the Youth division finals of the PBAP Bevida-Storm International Classic.

Wu, who lead the three blocks of the preliminary qualifying round, easily took the title with a 72-pin cushion over runner-up Frederick Ong of PBAP-Bowlmart. The 22-year-old had lines of 183, 213, 256, 226, 204, 237, 248 and 257 for a total of 1824 while Ong had 1752.

Singapore’s David Wong finished third with 1639, 11 pins ahead of Ann Lorraine Gales of Denmark. Markwin Tee had 1625.

A total of 43 bowlers competed in the Youth division during the qualifying rounds over 24 games and the top 16 contested the finals.